Greetings

I’m been sick off-and-on for the last two weeks because God hates me chastises the ones he loves with summer allergies. So, while I’m enduring my ride up the spiritual ladder, blogging will be on hold.

For my recent birthday I got this awesome set of Handel’s Concerti Grossi and Water Music. Highly recommended.

Of course, we also need to rock n roll:

Warning:  screaming commences at 1:03

Recent reading and recommendations

Here are some books that I have recently read:

The Epic of Eden: A Christian Entry Into the Old Testament (IVP Academic, 2008) by Sandra Richter (Asbury Theological Seminary). This is the perfect introduction to the OT and a joy to read. Dr. Richter is a gifted teacher, judging from this book, and knows well that learning comes by aids, examples, and repetition. She aptly combines the historical narrative approach (Wright) with a classical covenantal framework (Kline), balancing each other’s potential excesses.

A Brief Introduction to Karl Rahner (Herder & Herder, 2007) by Karen Kilby (Nottingham). If we can make “introductions” into a genre of its own, then this is the best introduction that I have ever read. I tried reading Rahner’s Foundations of Christian Faith as an undergraduate, but it was incomprehensible and tedious (I’m sure it still is). Then I came across his Theological Investigations essays, which are far more accessible and instructive, on a wide range of topics. Kilby is the perfect guide to the major themes across his work and the unifying principles (especially universal grace) which aren’t always worked-out in a fully consistent way and are open to some important criticisms, which she explains. Still, I came away from the book with the great appreciation that Rahner did what he did, even if it is so that we can go beyond him with a more careful articulation than we would have otherwise. Also, of particular note is Kilby’s excellent presentation of Rahner’s sacramentology, which is a definite step beyond Thomas and Trent, in my opinion. It certainly would have made the Reformation a little easier going!

Mary: The Complete Resource (Oxford, 2007) by Sarah Jane Boss, editor. I love the boldness of the subtitle: the complete resource. This is a very handy and informative guide to the history, theology, and culture of the cult of Mary. It is a collection of essays on, e.g., Mary in the NT, Mary in the early fathers, and more specialized essays, such as Francesca Murphy’s essay on von Balthasar’s Marian ecclesiology. The historical surveys are fair and unbiased, and the theological treatments (including a reproduction of Rahner’s essay on the Immaculate Conception) are of a high quality, representing the more worthwhile Catholic work on Mary (unless you think Alphonsus Liguori is the way to go!). The book is very expensive, but I got it for cheap at a used bookstore.

Protestant Thought Before Kant (Harper & Row, 1962) by A. C. McGiffert, with a preface by Jaroslav Pelikan. This is a classic in historical theology, written in the early 20th century. McGiffert was a student of Harnack, to whom he dedicates the book; thus, you can expect a careful attention to historical contingency, while not afraid to make broad claims and interesting conjectures. His viewpoint is largely materialistic and historicist, which actually makes the work more interesting and important, insofar as it clearly exhibits the medieval context of the Reformers and their concerns, something taken for granted today but not in McGiffert’s day. The transition to the Enlightenment is a departure from the Reformers and their standing in patristic and medieval Christendom. This transition is where McGiffert is at his best, and the book is well worth getting for this alone. However, his reading of Luther, especially on Law and Grace, is pitiful and simply wrong (faulting Luther for stark contradictions and antinomianism).

Engagement With God: The Drama of Christian Discipleship (Ignatius, 2008) by Hans Urs von Balthasar. Nothing by von B is “bad.” If I could have written this essay then I would be quite proud of myself. But, I have to say that this was the least interesting thing I’ve read by him. In fact, I can’t even remember any particularly noteworthy points, except stuff that you can find in more detail and better form in his trilogy. Maybe I just need to read it again. It is supposed to be a condensed presentation of his Theological Dramatics (Theo-Drama, 5 volumes), just as Love Alone is Credible is a short presentation of his Theological Aesthetics (The Glory of the Lord, 7 volumes), but the latter book is a far superior work…and I still don’t understand his Theo-Drama (from what I read in Dr. Murphy’s seminar).

Foundations of Dogmatics (Eerdmans, 1981 [volume 1], 1983 [volume 2]) by Otto Weber. I’m still working through the first volume, and I’m highly impressed. So far, he is making a lot of the same points, on method and prolegomena, as found in volume one of Barth’s Church Dogmatics. That, of course, is a good thing.

Evangelical Theology: An Introduction (Eerdmans, 1992) by Karl Barth. These are Barth’s lectures delivered in America soon after his retirement in 1962. This book is usually recommended along with Dogmatics in Outline and Credo as good smaller introductory works to Barth’s corpus. I would read Evangelical Theology first. Credo is a bit too difficult for the novice, and Dogmatics in Outline doesn’t quite convey the importance of what Barth’s project is doing. ET, however, has more of Barth explicitly telling the reader what he is doing, why he is doing it, and why you should do it too. You will be a poorer theologian for not having read Barth, and this book will give you a sense of why.

In lieu of reading novels, I watch a lot of movies. You cannot go wrong with Lauren Bacall and Humphrey Bogart.

http://www.amazon.com/Brief-Introduction-Karl-Rahner/dp/0824524284/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1245984542&sr=1-1

Greetings

Charleston, Broad Street, St. Michael's Episcopal

I’ve been on vacation — Pawleys Island, SC, north of Charleston — and now I’ll get back to propagating things I like, also known as blogging.

I doubt it

iMonk on “The Coming Evangelical Collapse.”

My opinion, with personal reflections:

Michael Spencer (iMonk) predicts that evangelicalism will collapse. The imminent demise of evangelicalism has been predicted by the sage, well, pretty much since the Reformation. If the Enlightenment couldn’t quite do it, then surely it would be Industrialism. Scratch that. Okay, then surely Darwinism, or maybe Existentialism. Well, add to that — the Sexual Revolution. Okay, it will surely be the Information Age. Or not. So, now what is needed — well, the Church itself is too stupid to keep going. So, ah ha, evangelicalism will collapse.

I know that doesn’t do justice to Mr. Spencer, who has frequently provided judicious thoughts on the contemporary Church. Nor does it do justice to the seriousness of the “secularization thesis,” namely, that free thought and advanced markets will produce a skeptical society (and, indeed, Denmark does exist). Nonetheless, whether or not evangelicalism will collapse depends too much (and ever has) on the work of the Holy Spirit, making predictions (optimistic or pessimistic) worthless. Add to that, the openness of evangelical Protestantism, its creative energy and adaptability flowing from Free Church principles, further makes predictions seem rather like a binding of God’s electing purposes. But, putting theology aside for the moment, I am especially skeptical of Spencer’s predictions for rather subjective reasons: my group of friends from high school.

Mr. Spencer’s reflections on the Church are, not surprisingly, reflections of his own experiences and those in his acquaintance (and the peculiar sort of people, heavily invested, who read theology blogs). This is not wholly illegitimate, even though I wish he would take a wider survey and root himself in the Church’s history (inclusive of Israel!) when making judgments. So, in the interest of providing a wider survey, here is the evangelical church as I have known it, in my own microcosm:

I went to a small private Christian school from k-12. It was operated by a large independent Baptist church which, though independent, would perfectly fit within conservative Southern Baptist thought and culture. My group of close friends from 8th grade until 12th grade was the same: about eight of us, rather active in school (academics, sports, government, honor societies, etc) and never second-guessed the Christian mission of the school. Now, if you watch movies like Saved! or documentaries like Jesus Camp, you would think that my quintessential evangelical upbringing was rather nutty, at best, or abundantly hypocritical, at worst. If you read blogs like iMonk’s or the Heidelblog (Dr. Clark) or listen to the White Horse Inn, then you probably think that we were shallow and cultic. I myself have even made charges of “intellectual sectarianism.” Whatever legitimate criticisms that must be made, there is one indisputable fact when looking at my group of friends from high school: we confess Christ as Lord and Savior and seek to follow Him. That is no small thing. Among these friends, I have one friend who is now a missionary in Nairobi, Kenya; another friend is a youth pastor in South Carolina; another friend is the senior pastor of a small church he founded on the coast of North Carolina; and another friend is a music leader at a church in South Carolina. And that’s just those who serve in the Church. Another friend is a law student at UNC who does the hard job of integrating his faith and secular work. We are all in our mid-20’s.

Why do I mention these friends. Because they are what I think of when I think of the Church. These are the guys I went to chapel twice a week with, to Bible classes three times a week, to Christian camp every August, to Sunday services, to Wednesday night worship, to Saturday soup kitchens and passing out tracts. This is the Church, imperfect but loved by God. This is the Church that will exist until the parousia. This is the Church for whom Christ is ever High Priest. This is the Church that the gates of hell will not prevail against, even as a latitude in forms (including the “American evangelical”) is unpredictable.

Rest in Peace

Fr. Richard John Neuhaus, 1936-2009

During the early semesters of my undergraduate studies, a close friend of mine introduced me to First Things. We would read and discuss the articles, and both of us (he, a confessional Presbyterian, and myself, a devout Baptist) were freed from the limitations of our heritage. Christian scholars were more than just exegetes; they were scientists, philosophers, social theorists, and so on. Strange as it may sound, FT played no small role in saving our faith; otherwise, we would have been overwhelmed by the coherence and interpretive power of the secular narrative, a mechanistic existence presupposed in our coursework.

So, there’s my little tribute to a man who changed my life. Thank you, Fr. Neuhaus.

Here is Joseph Bottum’s announcement of the death.

Scotland hills

Here are some of my pictures from a walk, back in the spring, through the Scotland countryside, about 30 miles west of Aberdeen. The Church of Scotland chaplain at Aberdeen voluntarily organizes these walks for any who want to partake. During the walk, I fondly remember arguing about T. F. Torrance with another C of S minister, and Phd. student, who thought Torrance had an undue influence on a generation of C of S ministers — blasphemy! I set him straight. And the weather was lovely.

Click to enlarge.

I’m Done

 

King's College Chapel, University of Aberdeen

I finished my master’s dissertation, in systematic theology (though my dissertation was on epistemology). Hopefully the examiners will be generous, and/or happy drunk, when grading it. It was a surprisingly difficult topic, largely due to the many different avenues that could be taken but would have required a much larger project (and skill). The topic was the moral epistemology of John Henry Newman, especially as related to the problem of certitude (i.e., how can we claim to be certain when we have been previously certain about various matters and later noticed our error?). It was all very interesting, if frustrating because there is no real “solution” to the problem. Newman is brilliant, but, more than brilliant, he has amazing psychological insight. This makes for a highly complex epistemology, because he sees logic just as fundamentally a moral enterprise as it is a rational enterprise. Apart from self-evident truths (e.g., basic mathematics), our assents are dependent upon our hopes, fears, likes, dislikes, loves, opinions, prejudices, traditions, and so on. Our beliefs are rational (or not), to be sure, but they are rational because they cohere with a larger perception of reality and fittingness. This extends even into his religious epistemology where he argues that our faith depends on a prior regeneration of our moral self, so our faith (or doubt) is dependent upon our likes, dislikes, loves, etc. What makes faith “supernatural” is this prior regeneration, a work of the Holy Spirit, but the act of faith itself is not really different from our other assents and their dependence upon our moral constitution. So, there’s some of what I’ve learned.

As for the University of Aberdeen, School of Divinity, I have the highest praise. The four dogmatics professors/lecturers are, of course, the primary reason for attending the school if you want to study dogmatics. Phil Ziegler and Don Wood are the lecturers. Dr. Ziegler will tell you everything you need to know, and more, about Spinoza, Kant, Hegel, Schleiermacher, Feuerbach, and everyone else who wrought all the mess that the 20th century had to clean up. But he is far from dismissive of this liberal tradition, which I greatly appreciated because I came from a philosophical training which took this tradition as basically the final word. As an undergraduate, I studied Tillich, not Barth — my professors never once even uttered Barth’s name. Moving on: Dr. Wood is a fine lecturer, cutting to the chase, ever directing us poor students away from unnecessary byways and toward the fundamental logic. His specialties are hermeneutics and contemporary dogmatics. Professor John Webster, of course, is the Professor of Systematic Theology. Webster is one of the few great evangelical dogmaticians working today. If you enjoy serious dogmatic work and can see its (not-so-obvious) importance, then Webster is your man. He has specialized in Jüngel and Barth, but has more recently been giving devout attention to classic Reformed theology (Calvin to Turretin) and Herman Bavinck. He is currently beginning work on a multi-volume systematic theology. My other professor at Aberdeen was Francesca Murphy, formerly Reader in Systematic Theology, now Professor of Christian Philosophy. She is an amazing teacher and amazing asset to the department. A follower of St. Thomas, Gilson, von Balthasar, and the Pope, she provides a nice balance to the other, rather Reformed, Protestants on the faculty. Considering my own desire to balance quasi-Reformed commitments and more natural law (moral) sort of thinking, I especially appreciated Dr. Murphy, who directed my dissertation.

Of course

…because Krispy Kreme are immaculate.

By the way, I am from the South and Krispy Kreme’s birthplace, North Carolina. Any Yanks or their equivalents (=Canadians) simply will not understand until the Holy Spirit has renewed their hearts prior to the receiving of the doughnuts, not “donuts.” Since 1937, Southerners have been graced by the presence of His doughnuts, surely a sign of His election, and have no need to explain why we must presuppose the superiority of Krispy Kreme before any doughnut debate. He that hath a mouth to taste, let him taste.

[Pic HT: Joel B.]

A picture of me!

In moseying around on my computer, I came across this pic my brother took of me last summer at the Outer Banks of North Carolina. I’m not quite sure what I’m doing (flexing my huge muscles?), but the lighthouse in the background is Bodie Island Lighthouse. Lighthouses are a pretty big deal in North Carolina, gaining a fair amount of tourists (plus, the beauty of the Outer Banks, in general, helps). Our state is the “graveyard of the Atlantic,” thanks to all the islands and sandbanks, with over 2,000 shipwrecks on record; hence, the need for lighthouses. The Outer Banks are well worth checking out, plus you can visit the Wright Brothers National Museum, located in Kitty Hawk, near all the famous lighthouses.

About me wee self

Well, I guess I’ll actually get around to telling a little something about myself. My name is Kevin (I’ll leave the last name off for now in case I write something really stupid, and people say, yes, it was that Kevin). I’m from North Carolina and very white, anglo-saxon (as is every dogmatics student at Aberdeen, by the way).

Who do I read: Karl Barth (what a shock!), Emil Brunner (who I like better in many respects), Simone Weil (obscure French gnostic-Christian), T. F. Torrance (Greek-Reformed), people who write about Barth (Webster!), Nietzsche (sheep in wolves clothing?), von Balthasar (not human), Kierkegaard and a bunch of other existentialists that I’m trying to get over (Sartre, Camus,…), and I actually do try to read stuff before the 19th century, especially St. Thomas Aquinas and Luther. For some inexplicable reason, I find patristics largely boring apart from historical interest (E. Jüngel and I apparently are like two peas in a pod), but Thomas Torrance is starting to alleviate this deficiency. Oh, and I read Kant (because I have to as a self-proclaimed ”thinker”).

Well, there’s my little intro to myself. I’m sure more will be divulged along the way.