Pascal on Jesus' Teachings

Pensees 369:

"Jesus said great things so simply that he seems not to have thought about them at all, and yet so clearly that it is obvious how much he thought about them. Such clarity together with implicity is wonderful."

October reading list

53. Crocodile Tears (ua), by Anthony Horowitz
54. Left Behind: The Kids #16 (pb), by Jerry B. Jenkins & Time LaHaye
55. Left Behind: The Kids #17 (pb), by Jerry B. Jenkins & Time LaHaye
56. Left Behind: The Kids #18 (pb), by Jerry B. Jenkins & Time LaHaye
57. Imager's Challenge (ua), by L. A. Modessitt, Jr
58. Infinite Playlists (pb), by Todd Stocker

NT Wright on the Future Hope

From Surprised by Hope:

"What I am proposing is that the New Testament image of the future hope of the whole cosmos, grounded in the resurrection of Jesus, gives as coherent a picture as we ned or could have of the future that is promised to the whole world, a future in which, under the sovereign and wise rule of the creator God, devay and death will be done away, and a new creation born to which the present one will stand as a mother to child ... What creation needs is not abondonment on the one hand, nor evolution on the other, but redemption and renewal; and this is both promised and guaranteed by the resurrection of Jesus from the dead. This is what the whole world is waiting for."

Pascal on Man's Corruption

from Pensees 446:

"If there were no obscurity man would not feel his corruption: if there were no light man could not hope for a cure. Thus it is not only right but useful for us that God should be partly concealed and partly revealed, since it is equally dangerous for man to know God without knowing his own wretchedness as to know his wretchedness without knowing God."

N.T. Wright on the Church

The church is first and foremost a community, a collection of people who belong to one another because they belong to God, the God we know through Jesus. Though we often use the word “church” to denote a building, the point is that it’s the building where the community meets. True, buildings can and do carry memories, and when people have been praying and worshipping and mourning and celebrating in a particular building for many years the building itself may come to speak powerfully of God’s welcoming presence. But it is the people that matter.

on the theology of signs

From Robert E Webber's Worship Old & New:

"Protestants are the weakest in the third area of communication, the language of symbols. We have capitulated to the Enlightenment penchant for scientific objectivity, for obervation and proof, for cerebral communication. This has resulted in a loss of our ability to express feelings and intuition symbolically."

September Reading List

48. Goth Girl Rising (hc), by Barry Lyga
49. Imager (ua), by L. A. Modessitt, Jr
50. The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo (ua), by Steig Larrson
51. Left Behind: The Kids #14 (pb), by Jerry B. Jenkins & Time LaHaye
52. Left Behind: The Kids #15 (pb), by Jerry B. Jenkins & Time LaHaye

Pascal on Man's True Good

from Penses 148:

"God alone is man's true good, and since man abandoned him, it is a strange fact that nothing in nature has been found to take his place: stars, sky, earth, elements, plants, cabbages, leeks, animals, insects, calves, serpents, fever, war, plague, famine, vice, adultery. Since losing his true good, man is capable of seeing it in anything, even his own destruction, although it is so contrary at once to God, to reason, and to nature."

Favorite. Band. Ever.

In 1990, the self-titled debut album Iona was released in the US. I had heard one song (Dancing on the Wall) on the local Christian radio station, and thought it was it was a cool sounding song. There were sounds in there that I had never heard before, from the Celtic harp to the Uillean pipes.

But it was an aritcle in CCM Magazine that stoked my intrigue about this band. In this article, Irish singer Joanne Hogg talked about the story behind the concept album. That first album focused on the history of the island of Iona, and the critical role the early Celtic saints Columba & Cuthbert played in preserving. This was revelatory stuff for me, not raissed in the church, and then brought into the evangelical movement, which tends to not care much about church history. By the time their second album came out, based on the ancient illuminated manuscript, The Book of Kells, I was hooked forever.

I am convinced that the reason I am so interested in church history and the ancient-future movement is because of Iona. The stories that they told in their songs captured my imagination, and showed me what a blind spot I had toward the stories of the forebears of my faith.

I drove 2+ hours to see Iona play in 1997, one of the highlights of my concert-going experiences. The pure musicianship that I saw stunned me. The 5 members of the band played more than a dozen separate instruments, all with skill and passion that put other bands to shame. They spent the next 13 years NOT touring in the US.

In the years since, my wife and daughter have become big fans of the band, as well, and we bought their Live in London concert DVD a few years ago. In a music class in probably 9th grade, my daughter did a report on the band.

We were planning on attending the 2010 Cornerstone Festival, and when I went to order the tickets in early December, I scanned the band list and saw that Iona was playing, and my jaw dropped. I showed my wife, and her jaw dropped. I printed that page and wrapped it with the tickets under the Christmas tree, that my daughter opened up. When she saw who was playing, her jaw dropped.

We couldn't wait.

August Reading List

38. Ghosts of Manhattan (pb), by George Mann
39. U is For Undertow (ua), by Sue Grafton
40. Wisdom of the Benedictine Elders (pb), by Mark W. McGinnis
41. Enemies & Allies (ua), by Kevin J. Anderson
42. Don't Take Any Wooden Nickels (ua), by Mindy Starns Clark
43. Par For the Course (pb), by Roy Blackston
44. Temple of the Winds (ua), by Terry Goodkind
45. Amy Inspired (pb), by Bethany Pierce
46. Good Omens (ua), by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
47. Outcast of Redwall (ua), by Brian Jacques