Wendell berry on land and farming

"“We are talking about organic artifacts, organic only by imitation or analogy. Our ability to make such artifacts depends on virtues that are specifically human: accurate memory, observation, insight, imagination, inventiveness, reverence, devotion, fidelity, restraint. Restraint–for us, now–above all: the ability to accept and live within limits; to resist changes that are merely novel or fashionable; to resist greed and pride; to resist the temptation to “solve” problems by ignoring them, accepting them as “trade-offs,” or bequeathing them to posterity. A good solution then, must be in harmony with good character, cultural value, and moral law.”"

Wendell Berry in "The gift of Good Land" (thanks to Geoff Wells)

Updike on Joy

A very nice article from which I stole the quotes below.

It was a Saturday and...

...the men from the sulphur works were getting drunk. From within the double doors of a saloon there welled a poisonous laughter that seemed to distill all the cruelty and blasphemy in the world, and he wondered how such a noise could have a place under the sky of his father's God....

Then Caldwell remembers...

...his father turning and listening in his backwards collar to the laughter from the saloon and then smiling down to his son, "All joy belongs to the Lord."

It was half a joke but the boy took it to heart. All joy belongs to the Lord. Wherever in the faith and confusion and misery, a soul felt joy, there the Lord came and claimed it as his own; into barrooms and brothels and classrooms and alleys slippery with spittle, no matter how dark and scabbed and remote, in China or Africa or Brazil, wherever a moment of joy was felt, there the Lord stole and added to His enduring domain....

The Centaur (New York: Knopf, 1963) p. 296

Toward the end of his career, Karl Barth spoke of "the happy science" of evangelical theology, making it clear that, thanks to the covenant of grace, the first and last and decisive word about human life is this same irrepressible word of joy

...what God wills for us is a helpful, healing and uplifting work, and what God does with us brings peace and joy. Because of this, God is really the God of the euangelion, the Evangel, the Word that is good for man because it is gracious. With its efforts, evangelical theology responds to this gracious Yes.... It is concerned... with Immanuel, God with us! Having this God for its object, it can be nothing else but the most thankful and happy science!

Barth, Evangelical Theology: An Introduction (Anchor Books: New York, 1964), pp. 9-11

Translating Faith

A quote from a very nice contemplation at a church (re)Wired by Andrew Prior. Please read the whole. Its quite short.

"'Loving God' is not about belief in some set of propositions. It's about living right. Not living right to be good enough for 'God,' but as a response- as a thanksgiving for life. It's about treating the creation well; people, plants, animals, rivers, the air the earth and the sea. 'Faith,' in a Christian context, is acting on the trust that the stories of Jesus point us to 'God' and to 'what God wants.'"


I would add the word "just" in the first sentence before the word "about".

Why ever did I study Architecture

Faith and Theology: Ten virtues for theological students:

After reading this post I regret no one explained this to me before I went of to study architecture for 5 years. Not that I am much of an architect.

Most of the 10 points Ben notes would certainly give meaning to any kind of technical education as well. It is a pity neither the students nor their teachers bother about this when they teach their subjects.

On the objective Knowlege of God

“The danger of … abstractionist thinking [we can gain "objective knowledge" of God] has always been that things are viewed as existing in themselves without taking into consideration the relationships in which they stand to other things. It asks, What is God in Himself? No movement can be applied to God; therefore we confess that he is immutable and eternal. No limitations can be applied to God; therefore we hold that he is infinite, almighty, and invisible. No composition can be ascribed to God; therefore he is simple and good. Finally, no essential multiplicity can be ascribed to God; therefore God is one.” (p. 218)

Harvie Conn in his book "Eternal Word Changing Worlds" (h.t. to Peter Enns)

72 Rules

+Rowan Williams said in his talk on Benedictine spirituality.

The holy person is not simply the one who keeps the commandments with which the catalogue of tools (referring to the 72 tools in chapter 4 of the Rule) for good works begins, but he who struggles to live without deceit, their inner life manifest to guides and spiritual parents, who makes peace by addressing the roots of conflict in him or herself, and, under the direction of a skilled superior, attempts to contribute their distinctive gifts in such a way as to sustain a healthy 'circulation' in the community.

Judgement of Work done

The quote below from Thomas Merton below goes well with another from Dan at PoserorProphet where he quotes a letter he received from the theologian Moltmann to the effect, "I do not judge my self" (referring to his own work)

"It is useless to try to make peace with ourselves by being pleased with
everything we have done. In order to settle down in the quiet of our own being
we must learn to be detached from the results of our own activity. We must
withdraw ourselves, to some extent, from the effects that are beyond our control
and be content with the good will and the work that are the quiet expression of
our inner life. We must be content to live without watching ourselves live, to
work without expecting any immediate reward, to love without an instantaneous
satisfaction, and to exist without any special recognition. "
Source: No Man Is an Island

(thanks to inward/outward for the quote)

Sanctification or the price of aging

(thank you John Camp. Read the whole quote here)

Gerhard Forde on Sanctification:
from "Christian Spirituality"--(pp. 31-32)

.. Well, maybe it seems as though I sin less, but that may only be because
I'm getting tired! It's just too hard to keep indulging the lusts of youth. Is
that sanctification? I wouldn't think so! One should not, I expect, mistake
encroaching senility for sanctification! "But can it be, perhaps, that it is
precisely the unconditional gift of grace that helps me to see and admit all
that? I hope so. The grace of God should lead us to see the truth about
ourselves, and to gain a certain lucidity, a certain humor, a certain
down-to-earthness."

I can really understand this, especially since August 2006 when suddenly I had an M.I.

Ellul on the future

Halden has a great quote from Jacques Ellul about how when a revolutionary judges today's situation, it is done with a truth -- a truth that is obviously only in the mind and is potentially possible in the future.

This means that the future truth is invading into the present trying to dominate it by judging itand make us believe that the future truth is more important than the present.

This is a subject that I've read many things about from Dr. Myers and others on the web but I could not understand.

How many gaps do I have in my knowledge

There Are 1 Gaps in Your Knowledge

Where you have gaps in your knowledge: Art Where you don't have gaps in your knowledge: Philosophy Religion Economics Literature History Science

Do You Have Gaps in Your Knowledge

So there you know my weakness

How much will you give to save yourself and how much to save your neighbour

Andrew Leonard of "How the world Works" says that the amount of money given in aid by the whole world is paltry compared to how much the US government is are willing to lend GM to buy the almost worthless Chrysler.

At the same time is the whole system collapsed he says that even worse things would happen to the poor. Still given a problem to the economy we spend huge sums of otherwise unobtainable money.

Can I do this on my own. How much should be my financial safety net? Is that even the right question. ... (I wish I could say see my upcoming post in which I will provide a neat insight and solve this painful issue.)

Strength in Weakness

I finally grasped a central principle of holy folly: strength in weakness. God’s power flows into and then gushes out of human vulnerability. It’s the principle of engaging our brokenness, running into it rather than fleeing it our denying it, but then finding true strength–God’s strength–smack in the middle of our brokenness.

Holy Fools: Following Jesus with Reckless Abandon by Matthew Woodley

(H.T. to PoserorProphet )