Dee Snider sings the blues.

Well, Abe and I have been moved across campus for the summer while some necessary maintenance is done to our apartment. Moved to a deluxe apartment in the sky. Well, not really, just the 10th floor. But still, the view is awesome! Much better than the air-conditioner laden tin roof panoramic of our regular apartment. And we now have sunlight! This morning I actually curled up on the floor in the sunlight, much like a canis familiaris, while watching one of Bob Barker's last appearances of his career as host of the Price is Right. We are thrilled that we are going to get to spend the summer in a place with such a beautiful view, and the lack of any mus musculus castaneusi isn't bad either.

However, the internet has not been working in our new place as of yet. This afternoon is the first time I've been online for a couple of days and was rather surprised that none of the blogs I frequent made mention of yesterday's passing of Jerry Falwell. I truly thought that the death of Falwell, the founder of the Moral Majority in 1979, would have drawn more attention. As you all know, the Moral Majority was an aggregation of conservative-minded, Christian lobbying groups with a goal, in essence, to propagate its version of the Gospel by means of political activism, thus creating the Religious Right.

Falwell, and those of his deportment, have drawn plenty of praise and, most likely, even more controversy over the years. But one question seems to be ever-present when speaking on the subject of such things: What is a Christian's role in politics? This question is one that plagues me. I have blogged about it (incompletely, with little follow through), I've had numerous conversations about it, I've commiserated with people with similar minds towards the question, and I've frightened or angered those who don't. When my mind wanders from whatever I'm supposed to be doing, on any given day, it usually finds itself muddled in the intricacies of this question.

Let me pose the question to you. Leave a comment. Write a blog post. Send me an e-mail. Write me a letter. Give me a call.

What is a Christian's role in politics?

Down to the wire.

I have a little over a week left of the semester. A paper due tomorrow. One due next Wednesday. I'd love your prayer as time is slipping away, as is my strength and motivation.

Hilarious.

I'm super busy writing. But on a self-imposed, mandatory, necessary-for-keeping-sane break I stumbled across this.

Brandon's Book Club

My semester is quickly drawing to a close. I'm basically done at the end of this month. That being said, I have a ton to do. However, I am a procrastinator, by nature, and would like to take this time to share with you a few of my favorite reads from the semester instead of working on either of my two remaining research papers. Here are 3 of my faaaaaaaavorites! (to be read as if it were being yelled with an Oprah-esque timbre).

1. Pia Desideria by Philip Jacob Spener, translated and edited by Theodore G. Tappert

Spener is commonly thought of as the father of German Pietism. This work, first published in 1675 as a foreword to a friend's book, was a critique of and answer to the apparent vapidness of 17th century Lutheranism. Lutheranism had gone through some incredible growing pains as it developed out of Roman Catholicism following the Reformation. As it developed, radical dogmatizing occurred to answer the immanent questions that it posed by its genesis. But the dogmatism had a profoundly negative effect on the heart of the Great Reformer's message. Thus developed Pietism. Spurred on initially by this work, Pietism is an incredibly interesting part of Church History.

2. The Stripping of the Altars: Traditional Religion in England 1400-1580 by Eamon Duffy

***Eamon Duffy’s Stripping of the Altars is a beautiful and poetic rendering of, as the subtitle suggests, “Traditional Religion in England 1400-1580.” Though this is a massively significant work in the world of historical studies, Duffy has done, and masterfully so, what an artist does in capturing the charm and profundity of her subject. It is clear and worthy to note that Duffy is a devoted Catholic whose charge is to examine a period in his beloved Catholic history that has not always fared well in the hands of historians. This work is most obviously biased, and as such, it encapsulates the personal devotion and love of the artist/subject relationship. However biased the work is, one should not ignore what Duffy has done in shedding a considerable amount of light on the popular society and religion leading up to and throughout this period.

This stout book is divided into two broad sections. The first, and the bulk of the its entirety, deals with an exploration of “the character and range of late medieval English Catholicism, indicating something of the richness and complexity of the religious system by which men and women structured their experience of the world, and their hopes and aspirations within and beyond it.”¹ In the second Duffy examines the “dismantling and destruction of that symbolic world.”² Furthermore, he makes the ambitious claim that, “when all is said and done, the Reformation was a violent disruption, not the natural fulfillment, of most of what was vigorous in late medieval piety and religious practice.”^3***

3. Turning Points: Decisive Moments in the History of Christianity by Mark A. Noll

Noll, former McManis Professor of Christian Thought at Wheaton College, has done a masterful job in summarizing some of the key moments in the history of Christianity. This book is, of course, not a thorough survey, but rather a compendium of some of the most influential historical moments that affected the course of Church history. Noll, though a professional Protestant, does an incredible job of composing this in an objective and fair manner.

I highly recommend this book. This is a wonderful introduction to church history and an exceptionally easy read.


*** This is an excerpt from my review of this book. Footnotes not included, so don't bother looking for them.***

Registered.

I remember standing in lines that seemed a mile long, for what seemed to be hours, to register for classes in undergrad. Times have changed. My registration time for fall classes was at 11:15 am today. So I fire up the old computadora and by 11:15:43 am, I am registered in all my classes. Ridiculous.

In case you care, here's what lies ahead.

History of Christianity in North America
Jewish Backgrounds of the New Testament
Ancient Near East Backgrounds
Theology and the Problem of Evil

Supply Side Jesus

I believe this video is based on a comic strip in Al Franken's "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them." I never read the book and I'm sure this fact may immediately place this post in the "offensive" category for some of you. But please watch.

I found this video through a couple of blogs I (in)frequently stumble across, including this one. Part of me would like to believe that this is from the standpoint of an outsider "poking fun" at Christianity. But there is something quite acrid about it. I see it much more as a valid, accurate critique of what Christianity has become. Of course, I can only speak of Christianity in the U.S., I know no other. But, man, this is so telling it nearly made me cry.

Ortho.....doxy/praxy

I've been working all day on a research paper. I chose to research and articulate some thoughts on the early Anabaptists. My knowledge on said subject is limited but expanding by the minute. A quick and incomplete briefing:

The Anabaptists were one aspect of what is known as the Radical Reformation. Anabaptists drew their name from their revolutionary practice of baptizing/rebaptizing adults. The term Anabaptist, besides the fact that I think it was originally derogatory, is a term used to lump a great number of diverse thinkers and their ideals under one generalization, yet it has provided some use as it has been around this long at least. Nevertheless, Anabaptists were persecuted in the early days. Many, many were burned at the stake as heretics. They were despised by both the Catholics and the Protestant/Magisterial Reformers. Their heresy centered mostly around their views of baptism and other sacraments. In the 16th century, church and state were nearly the same entity in many regards, thus if you were seen as guilty of heresy you were also seen as a guilty of treason...thus the persecution, marginalization, and brutal, brutal deaths that met the Anabaptists. I might add that Anabaptists generally held to orthodox doctrine, as we may see it, they were simply, drastically inarticulate about it.

***In case you need a better picture of the Anabaptists, look into the Mennonites. This contemporary group find their ancestry in the followers of Menno Simons, an Anabaptist who hit the seen a little later than the original crap storm, thus he lived longer and was able to accumulate a following.

Back to my point. The Anabaptists were overtly, and most likely overly concerned with orthopraxy at the expense of orthodoxy. Thus their theology was/is deemed to be weak. Sound familiar? Well it did to me, eerily similar to what we are dealing with in the modern day ECM/EV questions. Not that I am saying that ECM/EV is Anabaptist at the core, it's just all sounds very familiar in many regards. So I pose some questions to you that will no doubt elicit some responses.

- If you are of the ECM/EV camp, what do you do in light of your current perceived/actual theological weaknesses in light of the 16th century response to Anabaptists' weak theology?

- If you are of the Reformed or possibly the traditionally evangelical camp, what do you do in the light of the correlation of Anabaptism and ECM/EV and the 16th century response to the Anabaptists?

Some loaded questions, I know, but worthy to be asked...I think. Regardless of what camp...or lake, if you will... you find yourself and regardless of how you answer the questions above, I propose the following:

If you emphasize orthopraxy at the expense of orthodoxy...you've missed it.
If you emphasize orthodoxy at the expense of orthopraxy...you've missed it.
Neither can exist without the other.

Now this is how I see it...ECM/EV is generally perceived to be overly concerned with orthopraxy at the expense of orthodoxy. But it is in response to the general perception that Reformed theology is overly concerned with orthodoxy at the expense of orthopraxy.

The question to this is...Where do we go from here? Will either side bend? I'm not sure, but I think if one side is willing to bend it will be the ECM/EV camp. This is neither intended to be a positive statement of the Reformed camp or the ECM/EV camp. I believe that this whole thing is much bigger than some may grant it to be. I firmly believe that both sides need to be willing to listen at the very least.

To those in the Reformed camp...ECM/EV has some really important stuff for you to hear, not to be immediately brushed off as heretical or liberal.
To those of you in the ECM/EV camp... the Reformed camp has some really important stuff for you to hear, not to be immediately brushed off as out-dated or non-transferable to a postmodern world.

I think this is all fair to say, but you may disagree. I do know that the early Anabaptists sure didn't get a fair shake.