My composer friend Walter Robins’ oratorio Breath of God: A Walk Through the Bible will be world premiered by Capitol Opera Harrisburg PA in May 2011 (visit www.capopera.com)
I love Walter’s music because it has an angular beauty, just like the Bible. It constantly hints through its structure that there is more going on than immediately meets the ear.
“So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.” Genesis 3:24
“And Nadab and Abihu, the sons of Aaron, took either of them his censer, and put fire therein, and put incense thereon, and offered strange fire before the LORD, which he commanded them not. And there went out fire from the LORD, and devoured them, and they died before the LORD.” Leviticus 10:1-2
From Doug Wilson, Cutting Off The Buttons:
The world around us is an unfolding story. The world around us is not a plastic diorama behind the glass in a museum. The kind of objective truth that the faithful Christian insists upon is not to be found in plastic objects that never move, even if their immobility might be a catechetical aid to the bus tours of schoolchildren who come through.
by Tim Nichols
We worship in heaven, and we are unified with those who join us there in worship—including those believers in other nations, and those who died long before us. This unity surpasses any earthly tie, including ties of where you were born—or when.
The saints of every age and place are Our People, and we should hear the voices of those who have gone before us. They are sinners, and they can be wrong. But so can we, and so we listen to their wise counsel, and—as always—measure everything by Scripture. We cannot be revolutionaries, because we belong to a long line of people from whom we cannot separate, even though we may want to.
From God, the Christian Socialist and the Mad Monk by Chris Uhlmann
It might irk many to hear it but Judaeo-Christian morality is a foundation stone of Western democracy and, before we pull it out, perhaps we should ponder its strengths as well as its weaknesses. Because the West still hasn’t found an answer to the questions Friedrich Nietzsche’s fool posed in 1882.
Nietzsche wrote of the lunatic “who lit a lantern in the bright morning hours, ran to the marketplace and cried incessantly, ‘I seek God! I seek God!’ As many of those who do not believe in God were standing around, just then he provoked much laughter.
“Why did he get lost?” said one. “Did he lose his way like a child?” said another. “Or is he hiding? Is he afraid of us? Has he gone away on a voyage? Or emigrated?
“Thus they yelled and laughed.
“The madman jumped into their midst and pierced them with his glances.
From Peter Leithart’s blog:
Jay McInerny reviews First Chapter: How to Talk About Books You Haven’t Read by Pierre Bayard in the NYT. He says in part:
Literary agent Peter Rubie would undoubtedly have read many story synopses, both fiction and non-fiction. His colleague Janet Reid advises that anyone wishing to write a bestseller should read at least two thousand novels before attempting to write their own. Peter gives some helpful advice:
“When I began to edit the film, something happened. I found I was being educated. And not just with arguments. I was watching a Christian life. I was seeing a Christian man.” —Darren Doane
Just watched The History Boys, a film based on an entertaining but self-indulgent West End play by Alan Bennett. Despite the fact that under Course Language and Sexual References it should also have a “gay theme” warning (but I guess that’s not politically correct), the film is hysterical is places and unwittingly highlights a fatal flaw in our culture.
Just saw Avatar with the kids and thought I’d post some thoughts.
[WARNING: CONTAINS SPOILERS.]
“Biblical concern for the poor and the oppressed is manifested through the actions of the church, not through the state. Liberalism, however, has always insisted that statist action, not ecclesiastical action, is the remedy, thus aligning itself with the Beast against the Bride. This is no small matter.”
— James B. Jordan, “The Moral Majority: An Anabaptist Critique” (a review of Robert E. Webber’s The Moral Majority: Right or Wrong?) in Christianity & Civilization #1: The Failure of American Baptist Culture. [PDF]
Doug Wilson on Twilight:
Let me take this opportunity to point out the theological logic of this whole sorry business, offered as yet another reason why Christians ought to be having nothing whatever to do with this, as I say, sorry business. After all, what sense does it make to say, “Yes, well, I know the writing is terrible, but at least it has lots of Mormon weirdness!”
So there is something of a spoiler here, so if it is your policy to avoid spoilers, then stop reading now. At the end of the series, Bella does get it in the neck, so to speak. She gets vampirized, although I don’t exactly know how, having no intention myself of reading that far. Why does that matter?
