Archives For Augustine

Repaso: December 7, 2012

December 7, 2012 — Leave a comment

1. The enduring significance of Augustine
My friend Jeremy Chen tweeted a link to an exchange in Comment between David Naugle and James K.A. Smith on Augustine’s impact. Here’s Naugle:

As one of the Church’s great classics, Augustine no doubt wrote his Confessions to acknowledge his own faith in God as his chief good, and out of a need to confess his sins before Him. But I think he had other purposes in mind for this work as well. Since he believed there was something about himself as a human being and his own journey that was typical of most everyone, everywhere, he also wrote this book to assist us in our journeys toward God and genuine happiness—hopefully saving us considerable agony and disappointment—by the example of his own life. His loves and his life were disordered without God; his loves and his life were reordered in God. His example consists of an education of the heart in God, in love, and in authentic happiness. You, me, Augustine—indeed, we are here and all in this together.

2. Comment’s new editor
Speaking of James K.A. Smith and Comment, this week he was named editor of the magazine — wonderful news for readers of Smith and readers of Comment alike. In his announcement, he writes:

[C]ontinue to expect Comment to be a place where professors rub shoulders with policy makers; where scholars listen to practitioners; where Christian theology goes public. We are the magazine for those practitioners who appreciate the importance of reflection. This is a journal of ideas meant to hit the ground in policy and find expression in institutions. Above all, I want Comment to be a life-giving resource for those leaders, practitioners, entrepreneurs, and creators who are convinced of the importance of Christian cultural engagement but are now looking for in-depth guidance and direction.

3. The way of discernment
Mark Buchanan (whose book on Sabbath comes highly recommended by me) reflects in Leadership Journal on the process of discerning his call to become a pastor. That’s not what most of us are called to be and do, but his “four essentials” apply to us all:

I learned virtually everything on the job—preaching, counseling, team-building, strategizing, budgeting, vision-casting, peace-making. There was no trial run for any of this. I had to acquire every skill needed for pastoring as I went, in real time, in the public eye. Nothing was rehearsal. What’s been the one thing needed? What’s been the sine qua non, the irreplaceable necessity without which all the other skills, traits, and gifts add up to zilch? Discernment. Figuring out what to do and how to do it in any given situation.

4. Gondor needs a King
Thomas McKenzie, an Anglican man of the cloth whose pithy and entertaining One Minute Reviews are my go-to source for opinions on all the latest movies, appeals to those of us awaiting both the birth of our Savior and the release of The Hobbit (one more than the other, I hope) by connecting Gondor with Advent in this post:

Boromir didn’t want a king because he had never known a good one. He had only known self-serving rulers. But as he got to know Aragorn he came to respect him, trust him, and even love him. Perhaps we are like Boromir. Perhaps we would rather take care of ourselves because we don’t know a better alternative. But what if there is a better alternative? What if Jesus Christ is a good and loving and merciful king? That could be a king worth following, even a king worth turning over charge of our life to.

5. Phoenix street art
In an installment of Repaso about two months ago, I included a video about street art in Phoenix. Here in our neighborhood, murals are really starting to bring a lot of color to otherwise drab buildings, and it’s really cool to see. Here’s a slideshow of some of the more striking new murals around town.

6. Justice and gospel in the city
Rapper and spoken word artist Propaganda (whose record is available for free here) isn’t one to mince words. This clip from the Verge Conference might make you a bit squeamish, but it’s worth considering, especially for those of “us” drawn to serve “them” in cities.

Repaso is intended as a thought-provoking compilation of news and commentary from the past week related to the intersections of faith, development, justice and peace. As always, I welcome your thoughts on any of the links and ideas in this roundup!

[Image credit: St. Augustine via georgetown.edu]

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Repaso: August 24, 2012

August 24, 2012 — 1 Comment

1. James K.A. Smith on “holy worldliness”
James K.A. Smith writes for Christianity Today’s This Is Our City project on the “earthly city” and cultural transformation, with nods to Rich Mouw and Augustine:

[A]s citizens of the City of God who find ourselves exiled in the earthly city (in Augustine’s technical sense) are called to “seek the welfare of the city” precisely because we are called to cultivate creation. We will seek the welfare of the earthly city by seeking to annex it to the City of God, thereby reordering creaturely life to shalom.

2. Jon Foreman on the fight & the dance
The Switchfoot frontman is at it again with a new Huffington Post piece:

Yes, it’s a dog-eat-dog world, and dogs don’t dance. In fact, most of the creatures here on the planet can fight, very few can dance. We humans have the rare honor of rising above the fight of natural selection and choosing to seek a higher good than mere survival. I could choose joy instead of the fight. Unfortunately, the fight still seems to be the rut that I (and the rest of the human race) fall into. It’s sad but true. We struggle better than we salsa. The habit of the fight seems easy to explain: Dominance is easier to achieve than friendship; consumption is easier than love; and objectification is easier than empathy. Certainly, I desire to enter into the dance of happiness and joy. But, all too often I’m distracted by the fight: sidelined by the little battles along the way.

3. Forum on human rights in Guatemala
Back in June I referred to an amazing, heart-breaking story produced by This American Life about a Guatemalan man living in Boston named Oscar Ramirez. He recently participated in a panel discussion hosted by the Washington Office on Latin America focused on obstacles to justice for human rights abuses in Guatemala. The video is here, and it also features two people who are featured in Granito, the documentary I blogged about last month.

4. Tim Keller on biblical justice
I reviewed Tim Keller’s Generous Justice a while ago, shortly after it came out, but was just reminded of how good and important it is thanks to an excerpt reprinted in RELEVANT this week:

Despite the effort to draw a line between “justice” as legal fairness and sharing as “charity,” numerous Scripture passages make radical generosity one of the marks of living justly. The just person lives a life of honesty, equity and generosity in every aspect of his or her life. If you are trying to live a life in accordance with the Bible, the concept and call to justice are inescapable. We do justice when we give all human beings their due as creations of God. Doing justice includes not only the righting of wrongs but generosity and social concern, especially toward the poor and vulnerable.

5. National Geographic’s photo contest winners
The Big Picture has the 11 winning photos from the 2012 National Geographic Traveler Magazine Photo Contest, and many of them are quite good (as one might expect from a competition with a name like that).

6. Josh Garrels is building a studio
If you’re not sick of me posting videos from the singer-songwriter Josh Garrels (like this, this, and this), consider another. He’s working on his follow-up record to “Love & War & The Sea In Between” and he’s looking for a little help.

“The Process” – Josh Garrels from Josh Garrels on Vimeo.

Repaso is intended as a thought-provoking compilation of news and commentary from the past week related to the intersections of faith, development, justice and peace. As always, I welcome your thoughts on any of the links and ideas in this roundup!

[Photo credit: "A lonely cabin is illuminated under the Northern Lights in Finmmark, Norway." (Photo and caption by Michelle Schantz/National Geographic Traveler Photo Contest) via The Big Picture]

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Repaso: Chuck Colson on common grace; “saudade”; peacemaking & prayer; suffering & art; Miroslav Volf resources; food industry infographic

April 27, 2012 — 1 Comment

1. Chuck Colson on common grace
Chuck Colson, founder of Prison Fellowship and former Watergate “hatchet man,” passed away this week. He was at times controversial in some circles, but in this podcast from a few years ago, Gabe Lyons and Andy Crouch discuss his positive legacy and share part of an interview with him, including his understanding of common grace:

The term “common grace” has fallen at a disuse in modern times. However, the Reformers understood it be God’s grace spilled out in life for the benefit of non-believers, as well as, believers. Saving grace is the grace that transforms us. Common grace is what the just and unjust alike experience when God’s people work to restore things back to God’s original design.

2. “Saudade”
Those of us who grew up between cultures — as missionary kids, business kids, embassy kids, and the like — are often lumped together as third culture kids. My mom sent me this blog post on the Portuguese word “saudade,” which more or less means “a longing, a melancholy, a desire for what was.” It’s something TCKs commonly experience:

Third culture kids often struggle to give voice to their longing. Well aware that they are not from the country(ies) where they were raised, they still have all the connections and feelings that represent home. When trying to voice these, others look on with glazed eyes. Just recently someone said to me “But you’re not an immigrant! You’re American!” The tone was accusing and it was meant to be. What was unsaid was “Give it a rest! We know you grew up overseas. Big deal. You’re American and you’re living in America…” Ah yes….but I have “Saudade” I have that longing for something that “does not and cannot exist” and I know that. On my good days it is well hidden under the culture and costume of which I am now living. But on my more difficult days it struggles to find voice only to realize that explaining is too difficult.

3. Leymah Gbowee on peacemaking and prayer
Sarah Pulliam Bailey has an interview in Christianity Today with Leymah Gbowee, who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last year. Here’s Gbowee’s perspective on the connection between prayer and reconciliation:

There’s something special about prayer itself that changes things. It consoles you in your faith and open doors. Reconciliation is often a spiritual process. If someone offends you deeply, it’s too difficult for any man to heal you, so you have to encounter a higher power to receive that forgiveness. If you are the offender, even if the person you affected forgives you, you have to encounter something else to be able to forgive yourself. In order for reconciliation to take place, you have to be reconciled with God, yourself, and those who offended you.

4. When the world is suffering, what good do artists do?
William Dyrness, professor of theology and culture at Fuller Seminary, reflects on the purpose of art and the vocation of the artist when the world is suffering. Here’s how he begins:

Artists perform a strange alchemy, turning colors, nouns, and notes into landscapes, sonnets, and string quartets. Sometimes they perform an even greater magic by shaping images that keep us going, even in the darkness. As St. Augustine said, they provide the means of transport to move us along our journey. Our life, the Bishop of Hippo wrote, is a journey of the affections, which is meant to bring us to our true homeland in God. Many things attract our affections and move us, but they only take us forward when they are loved for the sake of God…

5. Online resources from Miroslav Volf
A blogger by the name of Andrew Goddard has compiled an impressive list of articles and lectures from Miroslav Volf that are available online. If my review of A Public Faith piqued your interest, this would be a great place to learn more about Volf’s work.

6. Ten companies that own what we eat
This fascinating chart shows the ten companies that own most of the food products we buy. Did you know the food industry was arranged this way? Click the image below to enlarge.

Repaso is intended as a thought-provoking compilation of news and commentary from the past week related to the intersections of faith, development, justice and peace. As always, I welcome your thoughts on any of the links and ideas in this roundup!

[Photo credit: Christianity Today]

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Politics, religion and the lost art of persuasion

September 20, 2011 — Leave a comment

I finished reading City of Man: Religion and Politics in a New Era a couple of weeks ago, and I’ve been sitting on it, mulling it over, ever since. It’s an important book, warranting a great deal of careful thought, and it’s also one of those rare books on US politics that actually does more to promote civil discourse in the public square than to erode it.

The book’s authors, Michael Gerson and Peter Wehner, are both conservatives — and political insiders at that. Gerson, as you may know, was a top aide and speechwriter for George W. Bush. He’s also a syndicated columnist for the Washington Post, and a senior advisor at ONE. Wehner is a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center, a DC think tank. He previously served in the Reagan and Bush (I and II) administrations.

The central question of the book is one both urgent and timeless:

What does it mean to be a Christian citizen in history’s most influential nation; in a world marked by growing interconnection, danger, and need; in a time of bitter domestic polarization and economic stress?

The first part of the answer is that there are more than two political options, odd as that may seem to us in twenty-first century America. As Gerson and Wehner write, Christians throughout history have formulated quite an array of differing — and, in some cases, diametrically opposed — political approaches that can’t be summed up by the overly limiting categories of right and left. Here are some of the main ones:

  • Constantinian: “wanted the church to govern earthly affairs, so as to bring society better into line with their understanding of God’s will.”
  • Augustinian: “the purpose of the state is to restrain evil and to advance justice.”
  • Anabaptist: “Christian allegiance should be to the kingdom of God alone.”
  • Lutheran: “two kingdoms, one carnal and the other spiritual, each needing to remain separate from the other and each making its own legitimate demands.”
  • Calvinist: “God [is] not only Lord and Creator but ‘a Governor and Preserver…’ The sovereignty of God, in other words, extends to all spheres, including all human institutions.”
  • Kuyperian: “three spheres — the Church, the State, and Society — each distinct but interrelated with the others, all part of the created order, all governed by God.”
  • Barthian: “the state… like the church, served Christ’s divine purposes beyond simply restraining evil.”
  • Niebuhrian: “believed in the necessity of politics in the struggle for social justice.”
  • Falwellian: “restoring America’s ‘moral sanity’ as an urgent Christian imperative.”

For that survey alone, the book is more than worthwhile. But that’s just the first chapter. Gerson and Wehner go on to outline, with conviction and grace, broad principles for Christian participation in politics. As conservatives, they take predictable stances on a variety of issues, but as Ron Sider writes in his endorsement on the book jacket, “one need not agree with all the assumptions or arguments to find this book a significant contribution to Christian reflection on where our nation should go.”

Politics, they write, presents us with an “unavoidable tension”: while a politicized faith has its dangers, “there is also moral abdication when faith ignores the opportunity for ‘genuine ethical action,’” a term borrowed from John Perkins. They point out the failures of the Religious Right, and urge us not to make the same mistakes — whether on the right or on the left. Rather, they urge discernment, faithful engagement, and above all, an emphasis on persuasion rather than attack. “If you would win a man to your cause,” said Abraham Lincoln, “first convince him that you are his sincere friend.”

In a polarized political climate that is anything but civil, in which demonizing and mudslinging are the norm, where cable news channels teach us that the way to discuss politics is to see who can yell the loudest, a book like this is a breath of fresh air. It’s practical, and true to both theology and history. Borrowing from Augustine, Gerson and Wehner conclude with both determination and hope: “The City of Man is our residence for now, and we care for its order and justice. The City of God is our home.”

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