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Wednesday, July 02, 2008
B&C on ‘Sundays in America’
Review of ‘Sundays in America’ at Books&Culture’s website:
I’m trying to think of something that’s as strange as church. As frankly odd. As consistently peculiar. My own church, for instance. I love it. But I wonder how it might appear to a Martian. Or, to John the Baptist, say. Or, for that matter, to Suzanne Strempek Shea, author of Sundays in America: A Yearlong Road Trip in Search of Christian Faith. Shea, a writer who made it her business to visit fifty-two churches in a year, and to write a chapter about each one. It’s a lot of churches. It’s a lot of chapters.
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Friday, June 20, 2008
Oldest Christian Church found in Jordan?
We often say that worship wasn’t invented yesterday; we inherit centuries of Christian practice. No matter what this cave actually is, this news release is a reminder that our liturgical heritage has deep roots.
Excavators in Rihab, northern Jordan, say they have uncovered a cave underneath a third-century church that they believe was used by the very first Christians between the years 33, about when Jesus was crucified, and 70 A.D., when Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans. The cave contains a circular structure that may have been an apse, and the floor of the later church above contains a mosaic that refers to the “70 beloved by God and the divine”—a reference, the excavators say, to the first followers of Jesus, who went to that area of Jordan to flee persecution.
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Alban Weekly on the problem of trying to ‘meet needs’
Food for thought from a recent Alban Weekly:
Defining the church’s ministry by responding to people’s needs is a common notion; but, because of the blurred line between want and need, no matter how much we speak of needs or perceived needs, it puts the church in the position of being defined not by its faith or history but by people’s wants. This trivializes the church, its mission, and its outreach. It eviscerates the heart of the church’s message and cuts the church off from its identity as the people of Christ. But the attitudes engendered in people who come to congregations expecting the church to make meeting their needs (or, more likely, their wants) a priority also harms the church. Simply put, when we say the church is to meet people’s needs, many people personalize that message. They hear, “If I go to church, those folk will take care of me.” In selling the church as a place where people’s needs are met, we draw people for whom there is, at least in their perception, an implied promise that if they come to the church it will provide them with what they think they need. The measurement of a congregation then becomes personal: “Is it meeting my needs?”
Christian History on Spirituals
From Christian History (as featured in a recent newsletter)
Militant abolitionist Thomas W. Higginson was the commander of the First South Carolina Volunteers, the first Union regiment made up of freed slaves. In his camps, his soldiers would break out into song, which Higginson wrote down and published in the Atlantic Monthly.
“These quaint religious songs were to the men more than a source of relaxation, they were a stimulus to courage and a tie to heaven,” he wrote.
“By these they could sing themselves, as had their fathers before them, out of the contemplation of their own low estate, into the sublime scenery of the Apocalypse. I remember that this minor-keyed pathos used to seem to me almost too sad to dwell upon, while slavery seemed destined to last for generations; but now that their patience has had its perfect work, history cannot afford to lose this portion of its record.”
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Tuesday, May 20, 2008
ISOT on Covenant-God, not Contract-God
[We should see our relationship with God not] in terms of a legalistic contract between humanity and God rather than a gracious covenant. Whereas a covenant is unconditional, Torrance explained, a contract is a legal relationship and has mutual conditions. ‘First and foremost, the whole federal scheme is built upon the deep-seated confusion between a covenant and a contract, a failure to recognize that the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is a Covenant-God and not a contract God.’
Here’s the Torrance reference:
James B. Torrance, ‘Covenant or Contract? A Study of the Theological Background of Worship in Seventeenth Century Scotland’, Scottish Journal of Theology 23 (1970), p.66.
Related Resource
Worship as Covenant Renewal
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Thursday, May 15, 2008
B&C on Charismatic Christianity in South America
Years of skilful interviewing by David Smilde of the men in two churches in dangerous parts of Caracas, Venezuela, conducted during the period just before Chavez, confirm what investigations have shown from Kingston, Jamaica, to Accra, Ghana, and points east. Evangelical, charismatic, and in particular Pentecostal Christianity offers visions and revisions of lives changed for good, spiritually, morally and (so far as may be, given the changes and chances of life) materially. Of course, some fall by the way, because things don’t to work out as hoped, or else they are pulled back into old ways by boon companions. Most encounter experiences which try them “as gold in the fire,” and getting right with God may turn out easier than getting right with a wife or partner. All the same, there is enough evidence of some betterment affecting all the interlinked dimensions of life to vindicate Providence in the eyes of believers rather than the influence of fortuna and fate. Even when sorely tried, Pentecostals turn to ancient, indeed biblical, ways of searching out the ways of God: for example, that he is teaching his children through adversity, that his ways are not as their ways, that their way of life has somehow been displeasing in his sight, and that the goods of this world corrupt our treasure in heaven.
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Alban Weekly on ‘Congregational Web Sites: Our New Front Door’
Jonathan, 28, believes Web sites functions like a “front page” for organizations. He notes that his generation surfs the Internet continuously, both during the work day and during leisure hours, and that they would almost never visit a church or other organization without first checking out its Web site. Whether or not Jonathan can speak for an entire generation, organizational Web sites are certainly proliferating. More congregations are establishing Web sites and more congregational leaders are realizing how helpful, even strategic, Web sites can be.
Related Resources
Using Your Website to Enrich Worshipers
Working With Your Local Media as a Worshiping Community
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CIRT review of ‘Jesus of Africa’
Review of Diane Stinton’s Jesus of Africa: Voices of Contemporary African Christology by Diane B. Stinton from Conversations in Religion & Theology
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Corwin Smidt on political cues during worship
A belated link: CSR’s blog links to a draft of a working paper co-authored by Corwin Smidt of Calvin College as part of a research initiative supported by the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship.
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Gerardo Marti on ‘fluid ethnicity’ in JSSR
Gerardo Marti, whose research we’ve been blessed by (see this and this), has a paper in the current issue of the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion:
Fluid Ethnicity and Ethnic Transcendence in Multiracial Churches
Gerardo Marti
Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion 47 (1), 11–16Abstract
Assumptions of racial essentialism lead to inadequate analysis of multiracial churches. Instead, acknowledging ethnic identity as a negotiated phenomenon encourages a richer investigation of how congregational participation stimulates and redefines a person’s racial and ethnic identity. The malleability of ethnic identity is such that it is often obscured in favor of other aspects of self. Ethnographic analysis of two multiracial churches, Mosaic and Oasis, indicates that particularistic ethnic affiliations recede when otherworldly, value-rational interests are emphasized. Ethnic transcendence occurs when members adopt a shared identity based on a uniquely congregational understanding of what it means to be a properly religious person (a proper “Christian,” “Jew,” “Muslim,” “Buddhist,” etc.). In short, the distinctive accomplishment of multiracial congregations is the cultivation of an inclusive religious identity that overrides divisive aspects of ethnic identity. Moreover, recognizing the varying salience of racial and ethnic identity evokes greater caution regarding what can be assumed when researchers apply the label “multiracial” to congregations.
(We may be able to make a copy of this paper available to your church by request.)
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Friday, March 14, 2008
The Old Hymns - from 1891
From Chip Stam’s Worship Quote of the Week:
Sometimes we may think that we are the first generation of Christians to experience intense discussions (or arguments) over appropriate texts, instrumentation, and musical styles for corporate worship. Not so! Today’s WORSHIP QUOTE OF THE WEEK is taken from the preface of an 1891 hymnal. The author is Basil Manly Jr., one of the four founding faculty members of our seminary here in Louisville; his argument, even 117 years ago, is that we canÆt afford to lose the old hymns. Does this sound like it could have been written in 1991?
THE OLD HYMNS (1891)
For some years it has been apparent that the rage for novelties in singing, especially in our Sunday-schools has been driving out of use the old, precious, standard hymns. They are not memorized as of old. They are scarcely sung at all. They are not even contained in the undenominational song-books which in many churches have usurped the place of our hymn books.We cannot afford to lose these old hymns. They are full of the Gospel; they breathe the deepest emotions of pious hearts in the noblest strains of poetry; they have been tested and approved by successive generations of those that loved the Lord; they are the surviving fittest ones from thousands of inferior productions; they are hallowed by abundant usefulness and tenderest memories. But the young people of to-day are unfamiliar with them, and will seldom hear many of them, if the present tendency goes on unchecked.
--Basil Manly Jr. (1825-1892), from the preface of MANLY’S CHOICE: A NEW SELECTION OF APPROVED HYMNS FOR BAPTIST CHURCHES, Louisville, Kentucky: Baptist Book Concern, 1891. This rare volume, containing only the texts of the hymns, was given to me by a friend in our church. She was cleaning out the piano bench at home and thought I might appreciate it. She was right. Thank you, Stacy. A rough count shows that there are 254 hymns; 53 authored by Isaac Watts, 22 by Charles Wesley, and 16 by John Newton.
For more information on Basil Manly, Jr., take a look at http://www.cyberhymnal.org/bio/m/a/n/manly_bjr.htm.
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Tuesday, March 11, 2008
How not to confess
Language Log looks at politicians’ rituals of repentance and identifies six steps, including:
2. Have your family, especially your wife, standing next to you. Begin with, “I want to briefly address a private matter.” “Briefly” downplays the importance of what you did. “Address” makes it formal and powerful. “Private matter” says it’s really nobody’s business but your own.
3. Admit wrong-doing in a general way. Don’t be specific because the fact has already come out and it doesn’t need to be repeated endlessly, especially by you.
4. Frame an apology without specifics. Stress your family. Say you’ve “disappointed,” but not “disgraced” or “acted illegally.” Spitzer’s went like this:
I have acted in a way that violates my obligations to my family and violates my, or any, sense of right and wrong. I apologize first and most importantly to my family. I apologize to the public to whom I promised better. I have disappointed and failed to live up to the standard I expected of myself.
Better to be simple and sincere: see Vertical Habits
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Monday, March 10, 2008
CICW director quoted in the Washington Post
“I definitely sense a hunger for acknowledgment of life’s mysteries and of the mystery and beauty of God,” said John Witvliet, director of the Calvin Institute of Christian Worship in Grand Rapids, Mich., which recently hosted a “worship renewal” conference for 1,500 people. “There’s a hunger for deeper engagement—‘Don’t just sell me a product at church, but really put me in touch with the mystery and beauty of God.’ “
Monday, March 03, 2008
Advice on Choosing a Research Topic for Doctoral Work in New Testament
In any case, for those of you who are in the shoes I stood in a couple of years ago (or just thinking ahead), here is some advice.
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Not Trying to Understand the Trinity
For me, the Trinity is like the internal combustion engine. Guys explain it to me and I just nod and try to look cool but I don’t really care. The Trinity works for me if I don’t look at it too closely. ...
I don’t want to dismiss the mystery. God exists in the realm of the unseen and unknowable together with particle physics and cell phone transmissions. I like it that way.
Also note:
Nick Norelli has inspired a wonderful collection of essays by bloggers on the subject of the Trinity. You can access all the articles by starting here: 2008 Trinity Blogging Summit (TOC).
Resources on the Trinity and Worship
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