Category Archive: Uncategorized
There Are Doors
Just before heading to Moscow last week, I finished rereading Gene Wolfe‘s There Are Doors. Doors was the first Wolfe I read, a couple years ago, and now I’ve returned to it after reading several of Wolfe’s other books.
My first time through Doors left me (pleasantly) bewildered; on this read, I caught much more of what was happening. As well, on the first read, the ending left me a bit disappointed; this time through, it was much more satisfying.
Doors is quite different from Wolfe’s other books, though, like them, it’s full of mysteries and allusions. It’s a love story of sorts, though that label doesn’t come close to capturing what Wolfe is doing. It’s also a sort of “alternate universe” science fiction, though, as Orson Scott Card says, one “that has as many echoes of Pasternak as of Asimov” (truth be told, I don’t think that there are any echoes of Asimov in Doors). On this read, I also think I spotted some traces of Dante which I’d like to tease out someday. Before I read it a third time (and I plan to), I’ll also have to read Kafka’s “The Castle,” another book Wolfe is drawing on here.
All the way through Doors, I felt a bit wistful, but I couldn’t stop smiling. It’s no wonder this book is one of Wolfe’s own favourites.
The Fabric of Faithfulness
The week before last, as I mentioned in other entries, I read Steven Garber’s The Fabric of Faithfulness. I’d heard it highly recommended by Gideon and Stanley Hauerwas has a blurb on the cover, but the friend who gave me her copy of the book didn’t really care for it.
I have to admit that I have mixed feelings about the book. On the one hand, I do appreciate Garber’s emphasis on convictions, character, and community (or, if you will, worldview, mentors, and community). But on the other hand, it did seem to me that Garber could have made his points in a few pages and that most of the book was padding. I didn’t particularly mind the stories of his conversations with students so much (though that kind of stuff drives my friend nuts), but I suspect I was more interested in the stories (and perhaps the students) than in the points Garber was making with the stories, most of which seemed pretty obvious.
As well, it seemed to me that Garber may have fallen into a kind of quick and rather shallow “worldview” analysis, the kind of analysis that I have associated in my mind with, say, Francis Schaeffer. This sort of analysis pulls in all kinds of things from a culture as illustrations of a “worldview.” If I recall correctly, for Schaeffer, a statue by Michaelangelo (probably unfinished) becomes an encapsulation of the Renaissance: “Renaissance man pulling himself from the rock.” Garber sometimes seems to do something similar: he gives passing references to movies and music (e.g., the Smashing Pumpkins), all of which allegedly illustrate or encapsulate “the modern worldview.” But I’m not sure whether he’s really interacting with the cultural artifact itself or simply (and perhaps rather dismissively) using it as an illustration of an “idea.” If someone writes bleak lyrics, for instance, is that bleakness an instance of modernism‘s fruit? Maybe. Maybe not.
Furthermore, I wonder whether Garber’s portrait of the culture in which we (and today’s university students) live is accurate. Part of the problem is that “the culture in which we live” is more complex than Garber describes. After all, if he can quote from MacIntyre, Hauerwas, Steiner, Bernstein, and a bunch of other guys who critique modernism, then it seems that we no longer live in a world completely dominated by (his view of) modernism. He spends a long time on the facts/values dichotomy, but, given that postmodernism insists (rightly) that there are no uninterpreted, valueless facts, is the worldview he’s presenting really dominant today?
Another aspect of the book raised some questions for me. Perhaps it’s because he works with a particular sort of student on Capitol Hill, and he’s writing about the kinds of people he knows, but at times, Garber gives the impression that the goal is to produce students with a drive to change the world. He talks about the importance of people having “a radical comitment to justice and love … and a selfless passion for a transformed world” (p. 37).
But what about the guy who gets out of school and struggles to make ends meet? Granted that Garber is talking about university students, but what about blue collar worker? What about women who go through university and then become housewives and mothers? “A transformed world” — does that include a changed diaper?
It might, and, to be fair to Garber, it probably does. But the kinds of stories Garber tells may make it seem as if working for “a transformed world” involves doing something big (e.g., becoming involved in a think tank, getting into politics, etc.) or dramatic (e.g., going overseas to teach school). The ordinary lives most of us — and, let’s be honest: most university or college graduates — will live may seem to Garber’s reader to be less “world-transforming.”
Now, lest I be misunderstood, I’m not saying that it’s wrong for students in university to dream big about how their lives might impact the world. I do think it’s important for students (for everyone!) to have a strong concern, as Garber says, for justice and love and service to others — and I suspect mothers may exemplify that concern better than, say, philosophers or politicians. Again, I do appreciate his focus on the importance of mentors and community (even more than his focus on “ideas” and “worldviews”). On the whole, though I didn’t find the book entirely satisfactory, I did enjoy the book and I found it helpful, not least for causing me to think about how best to help university students grow in their faith.
Dullest Blog
A friend just drew my attention to this, the dullest blog ever.
Microblogging
The de-Garvering begins! Welcome back, Brian and Mark! And if you guys are back, can Joel be far behind?
Mind you, even though his last name became the verb meaning “to quit blogging,” Joel hasn’t really quit himself. He’s developed a new art form: microblogging. He’s blogging one word at a time.
New Blog
After seeing this rant by a frustrated Canon Press editor (thanks for pointing it out, Lucy!), I’ve decided to add Jared & Mackenzie’s blog to my list.
Template Solution
Aha! With the help of Russ, I’ve managed to fix my blogger problem. The cure? I cut my template and pasted it into a word processor file. Then I selected another template, went in to edit it, and pasted in my old template. It worked! Thanks, Russ!
Template Problem
Why, oh why, won’t Blogger publish my template? I keep revising it, saving changes, and hitting publish, only to get a blank where an error message would normally appear and a link which, though advertising itself as leading to “more info,” leads only to a general troubleshooting page. Nothing I do seems to help. Anyone else having trouble publishing changes to your template?
Babel
In connection with my reading of Genesis, I’ve also been reading James Jordan’s Primeval Saints. Here’s a quotation relating to the Tower of Babel:
Ever since this time sinful human beings have tended to view people who speak other languages as inferior, or even as only talking animals. The word “barbarian” comes from the way other languages sound in our ears: “bar bar,” almost like the barking of dogs. European conquerors treated Africans and Asians as barbarians, seldom bothering to learn their very rich and complex languages, despising the inescapable manifestation of the image of God in these cultures.
The Christian knows that God has established Christianity to create a true unity of confession … among all nations and peoples, but this unity will not destroy the diversity of languages. Instead, each nation and language will praise Him in its own tongue (Rev. 7:9). Enlightened Christians seek to recognize and appreciate the beauty of every language God has put into the human race. Good missionaries do not seek to destroy everything in pagan societies, but rather they bring the Bible to such cultures and let the Bible transform them into true cultures.
At Pentecost (Acts 2), God sent out the gospel in all languages. While the Bible is the original and pure form of God’s Word in Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek, the fullness of His revelation will not come until every language comes to express biblical truth in its own unique way. Every language has a particular set of perspectives on the Word of God, and thus every language is fitted to reveal God and praise Him in a special way. Throughout eternity the saints will delight to learn language after language, learning to praise God in new ways, age after age, forever and ever.
Church Bloggers
This morning, I sifted through my “Blogs I Read” list and shook a few of them into another category: “Fellow Church Members.” All the bloggers in this category are members of Covenant Reformed Church here in Grande Prairie. Now if we could just get a church website up with some pictures….
Who Can Stand?
The Lord has been gracious to me. On Saturday, when I checked the weather report, they were predicting snow all week for the whole of Alberta. On Monday, as we prepared to load up the truck and set out, the report had changed: flurries for southern Alberta, snow in central Alberta — and, by Tuesday, just in time for the move, clear and sunny from Edmonton north to Grande Prairie.
The roads were good most of the way, except for some blowing snow and a few snow-covered patches north of Edmonton. The transmission on the moving truck was going — no reverse and difficulty getting into third and fourth gear — but the truck arrived safely in Grande Prairie yesterday afternoon, and now all my stuff is stored in the garage and laundry room of my (future) house. I was able to spend a night with my parents in Red Deer, and I’ve now arrived safely here in Grande Prairie as well.
As I left Lethbridge, somewhat frightened by reports of bad roads, I listened to His Majesty’s Clerkes singing “O Praise the Lord of Heaven” by William Billings and I remembered who my God is:
He sends out His command to the earth;
His word runs very swiftly.
He gives snow like wool;
He scatters the frost like ashes;
He casts out His hail like morsels;
Who can stand before His cold?
(Psalm 147:15-17)
Waterton
Last Friday, I took a drive through Mormon country (why should the Mormons have all the good scenery?) in southern Alberta to Waterton Park, which is on the Montana-Alberta border. Steve Drent, a member of the congregation here, is one of the managers at a hotel there, so part of my reason for taking the trip was to visit him. I arrived in Waterton around 2:30. Steve was at the desk, but several of his workers had left to return to university, and so he was short-staffed and quite busy. He suggested that I take a hike. No, seriously. He recommended the Bertha Falls trail.
Before setting out, I took a walk around Waterton and stopped for a bite to eat. This was my first visit to Waterton. When I was young, my parents used to rent a cabin in Banff for a week each summer. Today, Banff is wall-to-wall people, but Waterton isn’t nearly that crowded. In fact, Steve has had people tell him that Waterton is like Banff was fifty years ago. Of course, it’s probably busier during the summer, but when I was there it was pretty quiet and there were deer everywhere.
While I was sitting on the porch of the restaurant, I spotted more members of the congregation: Louis and Cindy Brandsma and several of their children . Louis is a painter and lover of nature, and the Brandsmas have been saying for a long time that we ought to take a trip to Waterton together. It turned out that they were camping in Waterton for the weekend and that Louis had wanted to take the Bertha Falls trail that afternoon. So we did.
The trail wasn’t nearly as steep as the one from Lake Louise to the Lake Agnes tea house, but it wasn’t as wide or as developed. We stopped at a lookout with a great view of the Waterton lakes and then continued to the Lower Bertha Falls: beautiful. Across the river, we could see several feet of snow — all that remained of what must have been a huge snowfall (or avalanche) last winter. Louis kept saying that he’d love to see a bear … across the river, of course. I don’t know if I’m that much of a lover of nature. At any rate, we didn’t.
When we got back to Waterton, Steve’s shift had ended and we went for coffee. Steve had another engagement for supper, so I ate supper on my own and then drove back home in the evening, listening as I drove to an interview with Clyde Kilby on one of the Mars Hill tapes, in which he recommended going for a walk outside every day, rain or shine, in order to maintain contact with “real things” — perhaps advice worth taking seriously in a computer age (says he, as he writes a post for his blog).
When I got back to Lethbridge, I went over to Keith and Jenn Griffioen’s place, fed their cat, and watched Snow Falling on Cedars before returning home again. I don’t know why I put off going to Waterton for so long. I think I thought it was farther away, but the drive there is only an hour and a half. I’ll have to go again!
The lectures from the 2002
The lectures from the 2002 Auburn Avenue Presbyterian Church’s Pastors’ Conference are now available online here. I’ve provided links to my three lectures in the column on the side under “Articles and Lectures.”
In related news, Christ Church in Moscow, Idaho, where Doug Wilson is the pastor, has posted their official response to the RPCUS resolutions.