Over the course of CIY and the following weekend, I reread The Practice of the Presence of God by Brother Lawrence. I agreed with the good Brother on most of what he said, but there are a few items we disagreed on. I will share the latter first in order to create a bifid that properly conveys my meaning.
My disagreements with Brother Lawrence are few: he is too ascetic and he is too uninvolved with the world for my liking. His asceticism borders on the Gnostic concept that the body is evil. He would probably put it in the more mild terms that the body is incapable of good, or the ultimate good. In his view of human nature, he tends to err on the side of total depravity. While I would agree that with our flesh nature alone we can’t become all that we are meant to be, I will by no means assert that neutral natural desires should be squashed. I’m not going to stop enjoying hugs and kisses, mud between my toes and the wind in my hair, coffee and Blue Ash Chili even though they are tied to my physical body. I will also not live as though God and myself were the only people in the universe. That simply is not true, nor should it be. Being personally invested in the lives of others is the best way to impact them.
Now I will move on to the things the good brother and I agree on. They are many, but I won’t need to take as much time to explain them all. (One thing must be noted before I continue: I can’t verify much of what he says from personal experience, given that I’m not nearly as mature as he was in these matters, but I can say that they are doctrinally sound as far as I know.) Living in the presence of God is a practice. It’s a virtue. You have to work at it and gradually cultivate the lifestyle. An integral part of this practice is doing every little thing as if you were doing it for God. This helps you constantly remember him and turn your thoughts in his direction. When you live in the presence of God, you experience peace no matter what your circumstances are. I think that’s all I have for now. It’s a quick and easy read, so I highly recommend it to all. He gives a much more thorough explanation for each of these things I’ve touched on, and he has the benefit of speaking from experience.
Book Information:
Title: The Practice of the Presence of God (and Spiritual Maxims)
Author: Brother Lawrence (Nicolas Herman)
Year Published: late 1600's
Sunday, June 27, 2010
Friday, June 25, 2010
Did Josh tell you about the Übermensch billboard?
I asked this question of Ian on Sunday in reference to a billboard Josh and I had seen on the way back from CIY. The billboard was actually advertising for a company owned by a person with the last name of Overman, but in German that becomes Übermensch. This question, unlike the others I’ve shared, led to interesting knowledge that I did not ask for. I got to learn a bit about Nietzsche’s sister, and I have since then done a bit more investigation on this woman.
Nietzsche’s sister was named Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche. She was fiercely anti-semitic. She and her husband even attempted to start a pure, Aryan, anti-semitic colony in Paraguay, but it floundered and failed. She was responsible for archiving Nietzsche’s work after he went insane. She promoted his work throughout Europe and gained favor from Hitler’s regime. In fact, Hitler even attended her funeral. What I learned from Ian was that Elisabeth did not simply publish her brother’s work. She also tampered with it a bit and is to blame for some the most extreme anti-semitic statements in Nietzsche’s edited works. Not having read anything by Nietzsche myself, I can't say how much tampering she had to do to get her point across, but she certainly helped it along.
Nietzsche’s sister was named Elisabeth Förster-Nietzsche. She was fiercely anti-semitic. She and her husband even attempted to start a pure, Aryan, anti-semitic colony in Paraguay, but it floundered and failed. She was responsible for archiving Nietzsche’s work after he went insane. She promoted his work throughout Europe and gained favor from Hitler’s regime. In fact, Hitler even attended her funeral. What I learned from Ian was that Elisabeth did not simply publish her brother’s work. She also tampered with it a bit and is to blame for some the most extreme anti-semitic statements in Nietzsche’s edited works. Not having read anything by Nietzsche myself, I can't say how much tampering she had to do to get her point across, but she certainly helped it along.
Thursday, June 24, 2010
Book Review: Rediscovering Paul
Because I’m a nerd, I sometimes enjoy reading textbooks. This book review is a product of that. Every CCU student has to take an Introduction to Paul class. Jenny highly recommended their textbook, so I borrowed Emily Isaacs’ copy. A lot of the material specific to each epistle was familiar to me from hearing Ben, Todd, and Ken teach, but there was plenty of new knowledge gained. I will focus on life in the Ancient Near East.
The first few chapters gave background on the world Paul lived in, the Ancient Near East (ANE). I learned a wide range of useful tidbits that apply not only to Paul’s life and letters, but also to the other writings in the New Testament (NT). Any question asked in public was a challenge to a man’s honor. If you had a friendly question, you asked it in private. Every man fought to defend his honor and, if he was a client, the honor of his patron. The patron-client system was an integral part of society. Wealthier men (and sometimes women) were considered patrons. Their clients were the people they protected and trusted to represent them honorably. If a person sought the patronage of someone of high standing, they would offer a gift to the high-ranking person. If the gift was accepted, so was their client-hood. This leads to the idea that almost every gift came with strings attached.
On a different note, I also learned a good deal about letter-writing in the ANE. It was quite an expensive venture, so most letters were short. The book of Philemon would have been a letter of average length that most could afford. The book of Romans, however, is a different story. Paul’s letter-writing style cost him a pretty penny or two. Letters of the day often followed certain formulae and conventions about greetings, body content, and conclusion. Paul’s letters definitely show these greetings and conclusions, although the other pieces may be harder to trace in his massive letters. The process of composing a letter was very different than it is now. First off, as my readers may already know, a scribe wrote the letter. The author might add a final word or signature of sorts in his own hand, but a scribe did all the rest. Different authors gave their scribes different degrees of freedom in the phrasing of the letter, but barring extremely rare word-by-word dictation, the scribe’s style would seep into the author’s words. Second, formulaic phrases were common and could comprise the bulk of the letter. In Paul’s case, this included not only the typical well-wishing and polite phrases of the day, but also hymns from the early church, teachings from the apostles in Jerusalem, and passages from the Old Testament. Furthermore, it would not at all be out of the question for the companions of the letter-writer to give input to the author. Given that Paul usually traveled with solid Christian companions, it makes sense that he would take into account their suggestions. All these things considered, it is not at all difficult to discount the criticisms against the authenticity of some Pauline epistles based on stylistic differences.
I could probably continue for quite some time about all the things I learned from the book, and there are probably things I learned without being conscious of it, but they have nevertheless already seeped into my understanding of Paul and the world of the first church. This book with all its details about Paul’s life and the surrounding culture helped Paul come alive for me (to the point that I shed a tear or two when they talked about his death and his concerns for his church-children at that time). It was most definitely a worthwhile read.
Book Information:
Title: Rediscovering Paul: an Introduction to His World, Letters, and Theology
Authors: David B. Capes, Rodney Reeves, E. Randolph Richards
Year Published: 2007
The first few chapters gave background on the world Paul lived in, the Ancient Near East (ANE). I learned a wide range of useful tidbits that apply not only to Paul’s life and letters, but also to the other writings in the New Testament (NT). Any question asked in public was a challenge to a man’s honor. If you had a friendly question, you asked it in private. Every man fought to defend his honor and, if he was a client, the honor of his patron. The patron-client system was an integral part of society. Wealthier men (and sometimes women) were considered patrons. Their clients were the people they protected and trusted to represent them honorably. If a person sought the patronage of someone of high standing, they would offer a gift to the high-ranking person. If the gift was accepted, so was their client-hood. This leads to the idea that almost every gift came with strings attached.
On a different note, I also learned a good deal about letter-writing in the ANE. It was quite an expensive venture, so most letters were short. The book of Philemon would have been a letter of average length that most could afford. The book of Romans, however, is a different story. Paul’s letter-writing style cost him a pretty penny or two. Letters of the day often followed certain formulae and conventions about greetings, body content, and conclusion. Paul’s letters definitely show these greetings and conclusions, although the other pieces may be harder to trace in his massive letters. The process of composing a letter was very different than it is now. First off, as my readers may already know, a scribe wrote the letter. The author might add a final word or signature of sorts in his own hand, but a scribe did all the rest. Different authors gave their scribes different degrees of freedom in the phrasing of the letter, but barring extremely rare word-by-word dictation, the scribe’s style would seep into the author’s words. Second, formulaic phrases were common and could comprise the bulk of the letter. In Paul’s case, this included not only the typical well-wishing and polite phrases of the day, but also hymns from the early church, teachings from the apostles in Jerusalem, and passages from the Old Testament. Furthermore, it would not at all be out of the question for the companions of the letter-writer to give input to the author. Given that Paul usually traveled with solid Christian companions, it makes sense that he would take into account their suggestions. All these things considered, it is not at all difficult to discount the criticisms against the authenticity of some Pauline epistles based on stylistic differences.
I could probably continue for quite some time about all the things I learned from the book, and there are probably things I learned without being conscious of it, but they have nevertheless already seeped into my understanding of Paul and the world of the first church. This book with all its details about Paul’s life and the surrounding culture helped Paul come alive for me (to the point that I shed a tear or two when they talked about his death and his concerns for his church-children at that time). It was most definitely a worthwhile read.
Book Information:
Title: Rediscovering Paul: an Introduction to His World, Letters, and Theology
Authors: David B. Capes, Rodney Reeves, E. Randolph Richards
Year Published: 2007
Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Fast Explanation
Due to lack of time and lack of interesting questions, I haven’t had much to write as of late. But now that I finally have things to say, I’ll be on a semi-internet fast until August. Blog formatting has been put on hold along with posting. I will be working on posts from time to time, so expect plenty to read come August. Already in the works are two questions (one about Nietzsche and one about word etymology), two book reviews (Rediscovering Paul and The Practice of the Presence of God), and two more happy notes from my senior year of high school. Plenty more will be started over the next month or so. As Tigger would say, ta-ta for now.
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