on culture

“Personality and the Making of Twentieth Century Culture” by Warren Susman
(Source: http://coursesa.matrix.msu.edu/~hst203/readings/susman2.html)

I just finished reading this essay. The wealth of insights located here is more than enough to recommend itself to anyone serious about understanding where we are culturally and why, by understanding where we have come from. In this essay, Susman describes the two modes of selfconsciousness that defined the 19th and 20th centuries, and the shift in thinking that led from one to the other. To preface, both modes of understanding one’s self, in both centuries are unbiblical and man-centered. Neither reflected the Trinity, and the Trinitarian way of interaction, that is, pure gift, and selflessness. Self-awareness and self-consciousness is not the ultimate goal in the Trinitarian Christian’s life. Our only thought of self is who are we in Christ, and who are we in relation to neighbor. Christ and others form the web of our self-consciousness. Focus on self alone leads to idolatrous individualism and, ironically, self-destruction. But encouragement in that direction is not the purpose of Susman’s essay. His, rather, is to expose the modern (and in doing so, the post-modern) view of self, and how it has developed over the past two hundred years, having sustained a fairly drastic transformation at the turn of the century.

(Read the rest of my response here.)

Sense

I just had to post this. One of my employees found this and tacked it to our bulliten board. It makes me smile.

Storms

This is one of my favorite Rembrandts. It's his depiction of the storm on the Sea of Galilee, recorded in Matthew 8:23-27.

That's Jesus there in the back of the boat, lying down, just awakened by the panicked disciples.

Notice the two approaches to dealing with storms that Rembrandt captures in this painting. There are the disciples up at the bow of the boat, furiously trying to set the sails and right the vessel. And then there are the ones back at the stern. I think they realize just how hopeless their efforts will be against the storm - how absolutly futile it is to pull at those lines when you're up against the wind and the waves.

And they're almost certainly more afraid than they ought to be, what with the Son of God in their craft. But there they are, on their knees, looking to Him for help.

Where are you in this painting? Up at the bow, pulling and striving while the waves crash around you, threatening to sink your little boat? Or there with your Lord, crying out in whatever weak and broken way that you can that He alone is your rock, your refuge.

And now for something completely different...

Just to lighten the mood a bit.

I was rummaging through my college poetry vaults, and came across this little gem. This has actually been published by an acclaimed literary journal... from Cabrillo College. Six popsicles go to the first one to catch the literary allusion.

Fairsized


The Cow

Once upon a mid morn sunny,
As I pondered over money
All alone my soul felt funny
For my friends went to the store.

I was left all by my lonesome
Hearing far off cattle groan some
Shaken by some sad unknownsome
I began to worry sore.

First of all, a cow was mooing
Then I felt some trouble brewing
For I saw that bovine chewing
Stately ravens, birds of yore.

Not the least obeisance made he
Not a minute stopped or stayed he
But with air of Marsha Brady
Sat upon my chamber door.

How he got there, ne’er he told me
Yet with harsh words he did scold me
Then his actions did enfold me
For my mind he did explore.

“Prophet”, said I, “Thing of evil!
“Leave me now you bovine devil”
So he left me, off to revel,
And I saw him, nevermore.

Beware of Democrats Wielding Alliteration

Thus far, the "Wierd News" category has been populated by some really great, fictional news metaphors that have illustrated some important facets of the life of the soul.

I'm going to deviate from that trend, though, with the following non-fiction story - because it's really, well, incredible. Not incredible like "great" or "fantastic" - incredible like in-credible. Un-believable. Oh no he didn't. This one can't be called anything but Wierd News.

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Nebraska State Senator Sues God Over Natural Disasters

Monday, September 17, 2007
Fox News

Nebraska Democratic State Senator Ernie Chambers has decided to go straight to the top in an effort to stop natural disasters from befalling the world. Chambers filed a lawsuit against God in Douglas County Court Friday afternoon, KPTM Fox 42 reported.

The suit asks for a "permanent injunction ordering Defendant to cease certain harmful activities and the making of terroristic threats." The lawsuit identifies the plaintiff as, "the duly elected and serving State Senator from the 11th Legislative District in Omaha, Nebraska."

Chambers also cites that the, "defendant directly and proximately has caused, inter alia, fearsome floods, egregious earthquakes, horrendous hurricanes, terrifying tornados, pestilential plagues..."

Chambers says he isn't suing God because he has any kind of beef with the deity. He says the suit is to fight possible laws restricting the filing of frivolous lawsuits. Chambers tells KPTM FOX 42 News that his lawsuit is in response to bills brought forth by other state senators to try and stop lawsuits from being filed.

"The Constitution requires that the courthouse doors be open, so you cannot prohibit the filing of suits," Chambers says. "Anyone can sue anyone they choose, even God."

Chambers bases his ability to sue God, as, "that defendant, being omnipresent, is personally present in Douglas County."

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I think this proves at least two things. First, Democrats aren't really the intellectuals they've worked so hard to make us believe they are. Of course, Al Gore already has "Exhibit A" status there. Case in point here, though, (aside, even, from the clearly ludicrous nature of the claim itself)- Senator Chambers' stated purpose for filing this "suit" was, "To fight possible laws restricting the filing of frivolous lawsuits." Yeah, bravo. The opponants of frivolous lawsuits are all gonna pack up and go home.

Second, when you see someone making their case through excessive and deliberate alliteration, their theology is surely in the pooper.

Freak Windstorm in Central Valley

A homeowner near Patterson, CA experienced a freak of nature last night, and it seemed personal. Grover Adamson was doing a little house cleaning yesterday afternoon, placing everything on the front lawn. Being a calm evening, he decided to leave it there overnight, with the plan of going through it the next morning. During the night, a freak windstorm came and blew away the entire lot of goods he had out there. Every last scrap was gone, and still has not been found. No other houses on the block appear disturbed or even touched.

"I just couldn't believe it," said Mr. Adamson. "It was like an act of God had descended upon my front porch."

Whether really a sign from above or not, meteorologists are still trying to figure out how it started, where it went, and if it will come again.

"I was simply going through everything I owned," Mr. Adamson explained. "You know, the kind of deep cleaning that takes you under couches and in the cushions, in the corners of closets, the drawer in the kitchen nobody likes. I held nothing back. I put it all on the front lawn. And next morning it was completely gone. We know nobody stole it, because there were no tracks. It seems like a big vacuum cleaner came and just sucked it all up. Actually its sort of liberating, not having to deal with all that garbage."

The Divine Abundance: Part Six

(Continued from Part Five)
So Beauty is real, present, independent, giving, bestowing, playful and creative. It is also diverse, copious, and harmonious. With Allah as God, only red is beautiful. All other colors submit in inadequacy. But with a Triune God ruling the heavens and earth, a rainbow of colors are considered equal in richness and beauty. Red and Blue can stand together and equally declare God’s glory in Beauty. But our God is three separate and distinct units, having no commonality. In like manner Red and Blue do not stand apart like in a debate, vying for the win. They are more like the two lines of music that when played together, harmonize. When something is beautiful, the individual aspects of that beautiful item work together to make it so. Take a beautiful tree. You do not separate the trunk from the branches, or the leaves from the ground its planted in. Every part plays its line in harmony. This is a microcosm of how the world works. There is a multiplicity of colors, textures, tastes, aromas, sights, sounds, that all work together in creation to glorify God. In their right created context, they are beautiful. This stems from the God we worship. Again, you cannot separate the creation from the Creator. A work always reflects its author.

Beauty is real, present, independent, giving, bestowing, playful and creative, diverse and harmonious. Beauty also carries an aspect of distance. Distance does not necessarily mean far away. It simply means space, and spatial relationships. In terms of our God, He is infinitely far, transcendent, and wholly other, and by the same token infinitely near, immediate, and within. Beauty therefore has these attributes as well. A painting perhaps best exemplifies this. To look at a painting one can see and touch the canvas, paint, frame, etc. In that sense it is near, close at hand. But it also has an aspect of distance, in that it takes you somewhere. From a Japanese bridge to a plaza in 18th Century Italy, to ancient Egypt (as with the pyramids). Beauty, in other words, is dimensional. Beauty has both the ability to transcend space and time, but also to locate one in a certain space and time. It not only remains beautiful through different cultures and era’s, but also takes the beholder and locates them in a different context. As I mentioned, this happens most readily with paintings, but architecture can have the same affect, both civic and landscape. Beauty brings the far near, and brings the near far away.

Beauty is real, present, independent, giving, bestowing, playful and creative, diverse, harmonious, and dimensional. Lastly, Beauty has context, and cannot be beautiful, at least in the same way, apart from its surroundings. To relate this directly to our God needs some clarification. God would still be God apart from His people, technically. But He Himself has chosen to irrevocably unite Himself to us, to identify Himself by us. Christ is now forever in human flesh. That cannot and will not be undone. To separate Him from that flesh would in some sense, hypothetically of course, diminish His beauty. In like manner, creation has context. The beauty of the trees in the mountains of eastern California could not be appreciated in the great plains of Nebraska. But in their context, they are some of the most sublime sights one can ever see on this earth. Likewise a Bach Cantata played at a hockey game, just does not fit, nor would the beauty be fully communicated and appreciated. Just because something works here, does not necessitate it working there. This is another way of joining the form/content debate. Form matters. The content is affected by the form. A cheesecake in a springform pan will look and taste different than a cheesecake in a meatloaf pan. The cheesecake needs its own specific context to function as it was meant to. Beauty works the same way. Beauty identifies with something. The point here is that the ‘something’ is important.

From this discussion, we have now a specific set of standards to judge beauty. These are objective standards that do not depend on taste. Beauty is real, present, independent, giving, bestowing, playful and creative, diverse, harmonious, dimensional, and within a specific context. Next time we will look at how if one of these aspects is distorted or maligned, the object no longer is beautiful. But for now, beauty is important, and how we understand it will affect how we live and relate with one another. And it happens whether or not we believe it.