science isn't scary

In the 17th century humans hadn't nearly any idea how big the Universe actually was, but were beginning to. Expressing the spirit of his age, Blaise Pascal registered perhaps his most famous line,

"The eternal silence of these infinite spaces frightens me."

Continue...I mention this because after checking out the Gates with what seemed like the rest of the American population on Saturday, Denise and I went to the A.M.N.H., the highlight of which was the Hayden sphere (pictured above). If there is something more capable of imparting an impression of how both enormous and infintessimal our Universe is, I'd like to know. An explanation of how it works can be found here. The closest proximation to the experience on the web I can find is this. Start by clicking on the quarks, click outside the box and just keep going, and going, and going...

Now, 17th century astronomy couldn't have begun to fathom the kind of data I encountered in the Hayden sphere. So if even the science of his day terrified Pascal, shouldn't our fear be even greater? Not necessarily.

"A young woman was sitting in the audience as the lecturer laid out the endless range of galaxies, the infinite depth of black holes, the mystery of dark matter, and the comparative insignificance of that blue dot - planet earth. Suddenly she exclaimed, 'That frightens me!' When Professor Torrance heard this exclamation, his response was, 'Don't be afraid. That's how much God loves you'"(p.15)!

That quote is just one more example of a well-formed Christian imagination catching up with science, to the benefit of both. Similarly, Karl Barth said the following:

"It is by Him, Jesus Christ, and for Him and to Him, that the universe is created as a theatre for God's dealings with man and man's dealings with God" (p. 94).

The bigger the stage, the greater the drama. The larger the Universe is, it follows that God must be larger still... and that he must have humbled himself across even greater expanses in order to meet us.

Before the big bang occured, at least 13 billion of the measurements we call "years" ago, there was nothing materially human about God. But there is now. This God who was without us, at that time (if "that" can even be called "time") made an utterly free decision to never be God without us again. God freely chose to consign himself to the very human nature that we each inhabit, and that's what made the big bang so loud. It was the sound of love.

Gerald asked me in comments below what the Gospel is. I think the Gospel is this decision. This decision means that God is so utterly for us, that He consigned himself to our nature forever. Anguish, cruelty, even death could not stop the force of this decision. In one sentence?

"The doctrine of the divine election of grace is the sum of the Gospel" (p. 10).

But better yet is this said with neither tongue in cheek nor fingers crossed.

good beauty

Speaking of Kierkegaard, he was as close as we'll come in our age to an Old Testament prophet, railing as he did against the "aesthetic life" because in his day (and ours), the beautiful had been so divorced from the good and the true that it had become an end in itself ("art for art's sake"). This meant the life of the "aesthete" was one of perpetual impression and little substance. But as theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar would say,

"[Beauty] will not allow herself to be separated and banned from her two sisters [truth and goodness] without taking them along with herself in an act of mysterious vengeance" (p.18).

The way forward then is not to abandon beauty, but to reunite it with its estranged sisters. How does this happen? Let Linford from Over the Rhine tell you:

"An interviewer recently asked me what I hope people get from this record. I said that whenever I encounter a work of art that moves me in a significant way, I always walk away wanting to be a better human being. I feel it all over my skin. This chemical reaction is a mystery. I don't begin to understand it. But I said I hope this is what happens when people hear this music. I hope people breathe more deeply and find ways to be more courageous, more open, more generous, more fearless, more loving."

Not unlike another band in their prime, Over the Rhine has become not just music, but a sort of community (fueled however, by faith not L.S.D.). If you pre-order their new C.D. Drunkard's Prayer, more of the money will go to them than the label, and it'll be signed. Here's a sample.

a postmodern parable

As I've remarked previously, the more I think about postmodernity, the more I'm convinced that it is not a revolt against Christianity, but against all the abominable philosophies that attempted to replace it.

Imagine someone trying to drive somewhere unfamiliar. Now imagine that person throwing the only map out the car window and insisting they can get there on their own. Now imagine that person, after getting hopelessly lost, blaming the map that they threw out the window 300 miles ago.

Should I explain my parable? Hmmm... W.W.J.D.?

Continue...
Western civilization (the car) did everything in the Enlightenment to disassociate itself from Christianity (the map) and to follow its own way (reason). But the new goddess proved unable to sustain her worshippers, and the car got lost.

The polemic of the the best postmodern philosophers is primarily aimed at those who attempted to keep driving anyway. Hegel, Marx, Heidegger, the Structralists, the Positivists, even the bastardized Existentialism of Sartre (because the legitimate father of existentialism was a Christian), all spoke with a dogmatic force that was rightly perceived by postmodern philosophers to be dangerous. In other words, the pomos effectively said,

"Stop driving you idiots, we're lost."

However, in an unfortunate twist, well meaning Christians overhear these polemics against the philosophies that have replaced Christianity, and instead of presenting the long abandoned map back to the lost drivers, surmise that the only way Christianity can "get with the times" is to pretend we're lost as well.

This is why it it seems the only things some Christians can get authoritative about today is their lack of authority. They suggest a perpetual pluralism, a constant second guessing of ourselves. We wouldn't want to speak authoritatively, we might cause another Holocaust.

But such a false humility will never keep us from another Holocaust. In fact, the best way to cause another Holocaust is to continue to perpetuate such a lukewarm lobotomized Christianity that is malliable enough for the next fuehrer to clothe his hate with.

The solution is to speak truth (without the outdated Enlightenment scaffolding) authoritatively. Namely, the truth that if you don't love your neighbor you will be judged by a very real God.

The solution to false Gospels is not no Gospel, but the Gospel. In other words: Stop the car, turn around, find the map you idio- Wait. Never mind. Can't say that. You see, I'm going to be judged too. ;)

Korn for Christ?

Hey, you guys gotta see the new movie directed by Clint Eastwood!

Woops, my mistake. This is real.

Divo

If you smell a waft of green tea enlightenment come your way in the Princeton area, that would be me. The Knotty Boy conditioning spray came in the mail today.

According to the bottle, it's for "more mature dreads" only. I feel so grown up. Also according to the bottle I should now "feel like the calm in the eye of the storm with that subtle, clean scent."

What makes it interesting is that I was also told by Knotty Boy that dreads are "universally symbolic of a spiritualist's understanding that vanity and physical appearances are unimportant."

Somehow I wonder if applying products to your head labelled "Coco-Knotty scent" still fits that description.

But I still love this company. My dream is to be sponsored.

What I tried to do for Oliver Davies' Theology of Compassion, a guy named Leithart has done (much more effectively) for David B. Hart's The Beauty of the Infinite.

Because when books break the postmodern theological stalemate, even those without the time to read them should know why.

Romera

You've heard of Romero (I hope). This time, as you may have already learned, the Latin American Catholic martyr is female. And she died not only for injustice, but for ecology. Goes to show that Christian belief in a renewed creation leading to environmental complacency is as much of a non sequitur as the doctrine of the resurrection of the body leading to chronic neglect of one's health.

Sister Dorothy Stang, requiescat in pace.

Neat Idea!

Well, Christo's The Gates goes up tomorrow, and seeing that I'm an hour from NYC I should probably go see it. And why will I go? Christo tells me I should go because his projects are "once-in-a-lifetime" and "once upon a time." In fact according to one journalist we should all go see his work in order to "let the fairy tale begin."

Let the fairy tale begin?

Actually I, like most everyone else, will be there for the novelty. And, I'll admit, because I want to be able to say I was there. It'll be fun, maybe even beautiful. But I pity those who actually go there for meaning.

If that's what your after, fortunately Christo is not all that postmodern art has on offer.

"One of the several ironies of post-modernity is that many of is impulses are pre-modern, none more so than the return to figure and narrative in contemporary painting. The recent work of Simon Carr exempifies this trangressively post-modern return to story. Braving the puzzlement, even the mockery, of his more secular minded colleagues in the art world, Carr began almost a decade ago to connect his calling as a painter to the great tradition of religious art in the west. The ancient icon writers: Giotto; Leonardo; Michaelangelo; El Greco; these great figurists and story-tellers of the pre-modern and early-modern age haunt Carr's post-modern religious and aesthetic universe. The reemergence of Biblical story in Carr's painting constitute a return of the repressed."

That was art critic Roger Ferlo on the artist now exhibited in the Princeton University chapel (through Feb. 20th).

A former professor of mine (quite an artist himself), once made the distinction between "neat idea" art and art that comes from a habit of being - both to see and to paint - which is developed over a liftime. And while Christo's Gates may make art-history textbooks for being a "neat idea", it is the artists like Carr (and Sheesley) who in my opinion actually feed the soul.

Intelligent Intention

You may or may not be aware of the "Intelligent Design" debate. This website give a clear presentation of both sides of the issue.

Today Diogenes Allen (my blog co-star) suggested that using term "design" may be forcing the issue. Better perhaps is thinking about intelligent direction or intention as a way of understanding the complex processes of life. Perhaps that could help break the stalemate, but it's unlikely.

Of course creationism (i.e. young earth) is wrong, but many people are eager to claim that Intelligent Design advocates like Dembski and Behe are wrong as well. And though I'm unqualified to comment on their science, one thing the I.D. camp is right about in my estimation is this: Hegemony makes bad science. Owen Gingerich himself said that he holds to Darwinism as a tentative theory, and no more than that. (But what would an old professor at some school in Boston know anyway?)

Behe and Dembski at their best seem to be reminding people of the simple fact that Darwinism isn't one.

"Stop investigating Darwin or you'll lose your job - it's settled," I.D. advocates it seems are being told. Sounds a lot to me like someone telling Max Planck to stop looking into "physics" because Isaac Newton (whose tree may look familiar) had it all settled. Planck, more responsible than Einstein for our modern breakthroughs, was actually so advised at the start of his career.

Furthermore, if folks of religious persuasion broke through an established ethos to make new developments... it certainly wouldn't be the first time. When James Clerk Maxwell was trying to account scientifically for field theory, it was his belief in the Incarnation that led to him to conjecture that a God who so dynamically engaged his universe could not possibly have created it in a static way. Propelled by this conviction, the Newtonian ice began to crack well before Planck came along.

Following Gingerich, I have no problem subscribing to Darwinism as a tentative theory. It compromises my faith about as much as knowing how many hours it took to paint Starry Night would compromise my belief in the existence of Vincent Van Gogh. But if new evidence presents itself, I see no problem in shifting my tentative perspective.

But considering many saw in Darwinism the chance to be an intellectually fulfilled atheist, I can understand why some are not nearly so detached.

Everyone knows the Western intellectual tradition is hopelessly misogynist. But this time those radical feminists have gone too far. They have produced an amended translation of Plato's Republic, in which after describing the education of philosopher kings, the following passage is shamelessly inserted:

"Glaucon: Like a sculptor, Socrates, you've produced ruling men that are completely fine.
Socrates: And ruling women too, Glaucon, for you mustn't think that what I've said applies any more to men than it does to women who are born with the appropriate natures. That's right, if indeed they are to share everything equally with the men, as we said they should."

The nerve!

Actually, I'm kidding. That, as you may recall, is the original. Quick, someone find new evidence contra-the-classics so we don't have to actually read them.

millinerd's 4 step program

How to be a Christian musician:

STEP 1. Be a good musician. If you're not or don't have the drive or discipline to so become, do the Church and world a favor and find some other way to express your faith.

STEP 2. Write music lyrics that are true before they are "Christian." The latter will follow from the former. As Flannery O'Connor said, "Faith is the light by which we see, not a substitute for seeing."

STEP 3. When asked in an interview about your faith, respond with something like this:

INTERVIEWER:Although from your biography you’re obviously a committed Christian, it’s never been layered on thickly throughout your music – did you ever flinch from the idea of VOL being labelled a Christian rock band?

CHRISTIAN MUSICIAN: Yeah, I shudder to think every time it even comes up, and I usually tell journalists, look, you know, I am a Christian but the term has way too much baggage for a lot of people. There’s no doubt that the church has bruised people, hurt people and all that, so I usually try to distance myself from it. In terms of my beliefs, I really do believe Christ walked out of a tomb 2000 years ago, and it’s like, what’s so strange about that? Millions of people believe that, so let’s talk about the songs. It’s the reason why I get out of bed in the morning, but it’s not an agenda. When I stand on stage, I’m not about making you believe the way I believe. I think there’s enough beauty and truth properly understood in the Christian faith for it to be life affirming for every single person in this bar tonight, every single person... It’s about taking a risk, stepping outside of our skins, loving other people, accepting where they’re at and trying to build a better world. -Bill Mallonnee

STEP 4. If your fan turn-out one night happens to be Christian enough that no one buys alcohol at the bar, respond somewhat like this:

Writes another interviewer, "Mallonee's tried and true religious fan-base are not what you would call great customers. "I offered the bartender $70 tonight," admits Mallonee as we wait for our early morning breakfasts in the Denny's after the band has loaded out. "I know the bar was dry as a bone. She wouldn't take it, but I feel real self-conscious about it."

German bureaucrat: "Look lady, do you want a job or not?"