Jesus
“For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not "perish, but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to judge the world, but that the world might be saved through Him.” (John 3:16-17)
Martin Buber
“In the relation to God, unconditional exclusiveness and unconditional inclusiveness are one. For those who enter into the absolute relationship, nothing particular retains any importance—neither things nor beings, neither earth nor heaven—but everything is included in the relationship. For entering into the pure relationship does not involve ignoring everything but seeing everything in the You, not renouncing the world but placing it upon its proper ground. Looking away from the world is no help toward God; staring at the world is no help either; but whoever beholds the world in him stands in his presences…” (from
I and Thou)
C.S. Lewis
“When I attempted a few minutes ago, to describe our spiritual longings, I was omitting one of their most curious characteristics. We usually notice it just as the moment of vision dies away, as the music ends, or as the landscape loses the celestial light… For a few minutes we have had the illusion of belonging to that world. Now we wake to find that it is no such thing. We have been mere spectators. Beauty has smiled, but not to welcome us; her face turned in our direction, but not to see us. We have not been accepted, welcomed, or taken into the dance. We may go when we please, we may stay if we can, no one cares. Now, a scientist may reply that since most of the things we call beautiful are inanimate it is not very surprising that they take no notice of us. That, of course, is true. It is not the physical objects that I am speaking of, but that indescribable Something of which they become for a moment the messengers. And part of the bitterness which mixes with the sweetness of that message is due to the fact that it so seldom seems to be a message intended for us, but rather something we have overheard. By bitterness I mean pain, not resentment. We should hardly dare to ask that any notice be taken of ourselves. But we pine. The sense that in the universe we are treated as strangers, the longing to be acknowledged, to meet with some response, the bridge some chasm that yawns between us and reality, is part of our inconsolable secret.” (from
The Weight of Glory)
Terrence Malick
Badlands (1972)
Days of Heaven (1978)
The Thin Red Line (1998)
The New World (2005)
Martin Heidegger
“Truth is the truth of Being. Beauty does not occur alongside and apart from this truth. When truth sets itself into the work, it appears. Appearance—as this being of truth in the work and as work—is beauty. Thus the beautiful belongs to the advent of truth, truth’s taking of its place. It does not exist merely relative to pleasure and purely as its object.” (from “The Origin of the Work of Art.”)
Saint Paul
“Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.” (I Corinthians 13:12)
Marshall McLuhan
“All media work us over completely. They are so pervasive in their personal, political, economic, aesthetic, psychological, moral, ethical, and social consequences that they leave no part of us untouched, unaffected, unaltered.” (from
The Medium is the Massage)
Sufjan Stevens
And in my best behavior
I am really just like him
Look beneath the floorboards
For the secrets I have hid
(from “John Wayne Gacy, Jr.”)
F. Scott Fitzgerald
“And as I sat there brooding on the old unknown world, I thought of Gatsby’s wonder when he first picked out the green light at the end of Daisy’s long dock. He had come a long way to this blue lawn, and his dream must have seemed so close that he could hardly fail to grasp it, He did not know that it was already behind him, somewhere back in that vast obscurity beyond the city, where the dark fields of the republic rolled on under the night.” (from
The Great Gatsby)
Yasujiro Ozu
Tokyo Story (1953)
George Steiner
“All representations, even the most abstract, infer a rendezvous with intelligibility or, at the least, with a strangeness attenuated, qualified by observance and willed form. Apprehension (the meeting with the other) signifies both fear and perception. The continuum between both, the modulation from one to the other, lie at the source of poetry and the arts.” (from
Real Presences)
Paul Tillich
“What is the nature of a being that is able to produce art? Man is finite. He is, as one could say, mixed of being and nonbeing. Once he was not. Now he is and some time he will not be. He is not by himself, but thrown into existence and he will be thrown out of existence and cease to be for himself. He is delivered to the flux of time which runs from the past to the future through the ever-moving point which is called the present. He is aware of the infinite. He is aware that he belongs to it. But he is also aware that he is excluded from it… Out of the anxiety, and the double awareness that we are finite and that we belong to infinity from which we are excluded, the urge arises to express the essential unity of that which we are in symbols which are religious and artistic.” (from
On Art and Architecture)
Dorothy Sayers
“Poets have, indeed, often communicated in their own mode of expression truths identical with the theologians’ truths; but just because of the difference in the modes of expression, we often fail to see the identity of the statements.” (from
The Mind of the Maker)
Over the Rhine
What a beautiful piece of heartache this has all turned out to be.
Lord knows we've learned the hard way all about healthy apathy.
And I use these words pretty loosely.
There's so much more to life than words.
(from “Latter Days”)
Soren Kierkegaard
“He will grant thee a hiding place within Him, and once hidden in Him he will hide thy sins. For He is the friend of sinners... He does not merely stand still, open His arms and say, 'Come hither'; no, he stands there and waits, as the father of the lost son waited, rather He does not stand and wait, he goes forth to seek, as the shepherd sought the lost sheep, as the woman sought the lost coin. He goes--yet no, he has gone, but infinitely farther than any shepherd or any woman, He went, in sooth, the infinitely long way from being God to becoming man, and that way He went in search of sinners.” (from
Training in Christianity)
Richard Linklater
Before Sunrise (1995)
Waking Life (2001)
Before Sunset (2004)
George MacDonald
“In what belongs to the deeper meanings of nature and her mediation between us and God, the appearances of nature are the truths of nature, far deeper than any scientific discoveries in and concerning them. The show of things is that for which God cares most, for their show is the face of far deeper things than they; we see in them, in a distant way, as in a glass darkly, the face of the unseen. It is through their show, not through their analysis, that we enter into their deepest truths. What they say to the childlike soul is the truest thing to be gathered of them.” (from
The Voice of Job)
Emily Dickinson
The Bustle in a House
The Morning after Death
Is solemnest of industries
Enacted opon Earth –
The Sweeping up the Heart
And putting Love away
We shall not want to use again
Until Eternity
John Steinbeck
“In uncertainty I am certain that underneath their topmost layers of frailty men want to be good and want to be loved. Indeed, most of their vices are attempted short cuts to love. When a man comes to die, no matter what his talents and influence and genius, if he dies unloved his life must be a failure to him and his dying a cold horror.” (from
East of Eden)
Bob Dylan
He woke up, the room was bare
He didn't see her anywhere.
He told himself he didn't care,
pushed the window open wide,
Felt an emptiness inside
to which he just could not relate
Brought on by a simple twist of fate.
(from “Simple Twist of Fate”)
Walker Percy
“What is the malaise? You ask. The malaise is the pain of loss. The world is lost to you, the world and the people in it, and there remains only you and the world and you no more able to be in the world than Banquo’s ghost.” (from
The Moviegoer)
Sofia Coppola
Virgin Suicides (2000)
Lost in Translation (2003)
Marie Antoinette (2006)
Kathleen Norris
“Church is to be participated in and not consumed. The point is not what one gets out of it, but the worship of God; the service takes place both because of and despite the needs, strengths, and frailties of the people present. How else could it be?” (from
Dakota)
Marilynne Robinson
“Whenever I think of Edward, I think of playing catch in a hot street and that wonderful weariness of the arms. I think of leaping after a high throw and that wonderful collaboration of the whole body with itself and that wonderful certainty and amazement when you know the glove is just where it should be. Oh, I will miss the world!” (from
Gilead)
N.T. Wright
“Preaching the gospel means announcing Jesus as Lord of the world; and, unless we are prepared to contradict ourselves with every breath we take, we cannot make that announcement without seeking to bring that lordship to bear over every aspect of the world.” (from
What Saint Paul Really Said).
David Bazan
It's weird to think of all the things
That have not been keeping up with the times
It's ten o' clock the sun is down
Just begun to set the western hills on fire
I hear that you don't change
How do you expect to keep up with the trends
You won't survive the information age
Unless you plan to change the truth to accommodate the brilliance of man
The brilliance of man
(from “Letter From a Concerned Follower”)
G.K. Chesterton
“Gazing at some detail like a bird or a cloud, we can all ignore its awful blue background; we can neglect the sky; and precisely because it bears down upon us with an annihilating force it is felt as nothing. A thing of this kind can only be an impression and a rather subtle impression; but to me it is a very strong impression made by pagan literature and religion. I repeat that in our special sacramental sense there is, of course, the absence of the presence of God. But there is in a very real sense the presence of the absence of God. We feel it in the unfathomable sadness of pagan poetry; for I doubt if there was ever in all the marvelous manhood of antiquity a man who was happy as St. Francis was happy.” (from
The Everlasting Man)
Gus Van Sant
Elephant (2003)
Paranoid Park (2008)
Solomon
"I have seen the task which God has given the sons of men with which to occupy themselves. He has made everything appropriate in its time. He has also set eternity in their heart, yet so that man will not find out the work which God has done from the beginning even to the end. I know that there is nothing better for them than to rejoice and to do good in one's lifetime; moreover, that every man who eats and drinks sees good in all his labor--it is the gift of God. I know that everything God does will remain forever; there is nothing to add to it and there is nothing to take from it, for God has so worked that men should fear Him. That which is has been already and that which will be has already been, for God seeks what has passed by." (Ecclesiastes 3:10-15).
Jack Kerouac
“What is that feeling when you’re driving away from people and they recede on the plain till you see their specks dispersing?—it’s the too-huge world vaulting us, and it’s good bye. But we lean forward to the next crazy venture beneath the skies.” (from
On the Road)
St. Augustine
"Thou hast made us for Thyself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they find their rest in Thee..."
Martin Luther
“Unless I am convinced by proofs from Scriptures or by plain and clear reasons and arguments, I can and will not retract, for it is neither safe nor wise to do anything against conscience. Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me. Amen."
Jean-Pierre and Luc Dardenne
The Son (2002)
The Child (2005)
;
The Search 
I wish that my fellow conservatives listening to & watching Beck were listening to Dennis Prager instead. I’m not sure if he has ever talked about Beck, but I do know he is thoughtful, respectful, well spoken & clear-minded – especially when discussing those who he disagrees with.
Prager talked about Beck’s rally during two of the three hours of his show yesterday. He praised Beck’s courage to hold such a rally that honored the troops and criticized those in the media who falsely misrepresented the rally.
Right on…Just about to listen to yesterday’s show here at work.
While I’m no fan of polarization, that’s not the root of the problem. Journalists learn to be on guard against the biases of the left and right and are left defenseless against the bias of the center–perhaps the most dangerous because it often masquerades as virtuous moderation.
To wit, there’s a difference between taking Beck seriously–which many have done–and assuming good faith, that is, assuming that Beck actually believes what he’s saying, something no thinking person should assume.
So taking Glenn Beck seriously means having a real confessional moment, where we look more deeply at the long alignment of fundamentalism and power. That’s rough because it means confessing our history of epistemological chauvinism.
Jeff Sharlet’s writing about Beck, as with all his work on the evangelical right, is precise, thoughtful, and imbued with equal parts horror and compassion.
http://jeffsharlet.blogspot.com/2010/08/glenn-beck-amazing-grace-2010.html
http://harpers.org/archive/2006/12/0081322
Are you avoiding the inevitable?
(Your own serious analysis of Beck)
Wow….great post. Actually, one of the best I read about Beck’s D.C. trip. :)
http://www.religiondispatches.org/archive/atheologies/3236/%E2%80%9Cme%E2%80%9D_the_people%3A_a_day_with_the_tea_party/
Also:
http://www.episcopalcafe.com/daily/news/beck_wants_to_be_smith_not_kin.php
and:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rev-james-martin-sj/glenn-beck-vs-christ-the-_b_698359.html
http://www.russellmoore.com/2010/08/29/god-the-gospel-and-glenn-beck/
Pingback: Perspectives on Glenn Beck
Your prayer was answered this morning. This op/ed by Russell Moore, Dean of the School of Theology the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, is all over the web.
http://www.russellmoore.com/2010/08/29/god-the-gospel-and-glenn-beck/
“How was this joker the focal point of one of the largest political gatherings in recent history?”
“…is as infantile and unhelpful as the man himself”
Enough with the subtle name calling. You lose your arguments immediately with this; disagree with him if you want, but present facts.
Many folks don’t like the direction the country is going. Since January 20, 2009 we have suffered. And it’s not getting better. People want to “right the ship”; I don’t think much more needs to be read into the rally and/or Glenn Beck.
To Vince — we did not start suffering on January 2009, every indicator in the economy and the society is better than it was on January 2009 — take whatever measure you want and you will see that is the truth. So why is there anger at Obama? Because the supporters of Bush were able to take the issues that are not yet fixed and pin them on Obama. They even started in before he had made any policy decisions, remember the speech to school children that got demonized before it was delivered and before Obama had made any policy attempts. What we are seeing in Glenn Beck and the Fox news channel are people who do not want to repent of the massive failure of Bush — 2 wars with one started on false premises (lies?). The crash of the economy, deregulation — as a policy — that has led to oil giants running rampant. So they have pinned it all on the guy coming in. What is maddening is that some people are believing it. That is massive brainwashing of a scale not seen in the US before and it is very very troubling and Glenn Beck is one of those at the heart of this. Why does it work, because while most people in the US want not to be scared of black people they are. So Glenn Beck used that fear to do the reversal thing on the gullible — first tell them that Obama hates white people — an old brainwashing technique — take the fear in someone and project it outward. Then keep associating his name with something very fearful — in this case Nazism and socialism. As people began to critique his technique he knew he needed a cover. He chose ML King. People have a very positive image of ML King and liking him makes them feel non racists, so Glenn Beck portrayed himself as in the tradition of King — never mind that Becks ideas oppose Kings at almost every point. ( I AM a King scholar). What we have is not Glenn Beck as a joke, but Glenn Beck as a skilled propagandist.
Dear Brett,
You asked for a serious analysis of Glenn Beck. Here is a recent on at VYC America’s Crosstalk:
http://www.crosstalkamerica.com/shows/recent_programs.php
(scroll down to August 30)
Also, I would like to respond to your article in the WSJ. I have written two books on Rick Warren and two articles for two conservative theological journals.
PERILS OF PURPOSE-DRIVEN GLOBAL PEACE PLAN
At the heart of this issue is two things:
1. Is the church for believers or unbelievers. Certainly unbelievers will be in attendance and probably more will be there at Christmas and Easter. But there is not a single biblical proof that the primary purpose of the church is accommodate the lost rather than to build up the Body of Christ and declare His Glory!
2. It assumes that the premise of Purpose-Driven and Emerging teachings are true or the work of God, when in fact they are saturated with false teachers and mysticism. It marks and expels true Christians by calling them Sanballats and Tobiahs “Leaders from Hell” and “Enemies of the 21st Century” (Dan Southerand and Rick Warren), so that the premise is fatally flawed by slandering true blood-bought Christians. Slanderers will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven. Proof that Rick Warren is a false teacher and destroyer of the brethren, see:
http://www.perfectpeaceplan.com
and
The latter website features Loren Davis, Evangelist in Africa, who, like the above article was a front page story in the Wall Street Journal, as was Suzanne Sataline’s expose on Rick Warren, WSJ reporter.
Kindest regards in Christ,
James Sundquist
Director
Rock Salt Publishing
&
Perfectpeaceplan
Yeah I don’t understand tea partiers and anti-Obama people who are acting all crazy like America is in worst shape then it has ever been. During Bush, we were in a dead end war, the economy tanked, we had no health care, the public school system was a mess. Where these people then? And not that Obama has fixed all this, but I don’t get why it’s all his fault.
I am LDS and Glenn Beck does not speak for my faith or my Church. Despite what many people say, print and think LDS(Mormons) are Christians, we believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, Redeemer of the World. The Jehovah of the Old Testament and Messiah of the New.
That aside, I disagree with Glenn Beck and Sarah Palin. Many LDS do, many people do in genearl. Political differences aside, my biggest disappointment regarding Glenn Beck is that he encourages fear and distrust and favors aggressive rhetoric and hyperbole to open respectful debate. Which has caused the political and social atmosphere in our country to become completely un-Christian.
I live over-seas and thankfully the tumult of this atmosphere, I am free of, however even this rally was heard of over here in southern China and I had to answer some embarrassing questions from other expatriates, Chinese and Hong Kong citizens regarding said rally and why people listen to Glenn Beck, and why Sarah Palin didn’t fall of the face of the planet after 2008.
I didn’t have especially good answers, but having to explain hate-mongering and propaganda and the current political atmosphere to Chinese citizens isn’t exactly a great selling point for democracy.
I’m sorry, but Mormons are not Christians. You can not deny many of the most central doctrines of a faith and claim to be part of that faith. The Bible teaches that there is one God and that He is eternal. Mormonism teaches that there are many gods and who Christians think is God was created by another god. The Bible teaches that Jesus died for the forgiveness of our sins and that by receiving this gift by faith we are reconciled to God. Mormonism does not teach justification by faith, but through obedience to the laws of the Mormon church.
yes indeed. if you ask an orthodox christian to define grace, and then ask the same to an LDS member, there is going to be a world of difference between the definitions. they are, at best, an aberrant splinter of christianity.
Brett, this ad was on your blog page: http://www.safeguardourconstitution.com/
I’m curious if you have control or endorse this conspiracy theorist.
To Rye: We have always had healthcare, I’ve worked in hospitals my enitre adult life; healthcare is new? Public schools are still a mess (not a new issue). The economy was strong until late 2008, tanked primarily due to bad mortgages/Freddie Mac, Fannie Mae.
To Bob: It had been policy of the USA to remove Saddam Hussein since the Clinton years. Every western gov’t believed he was hoarding an arsenal, not lies. Enough with “oil comapnies” and deregulation, see above about the housing market; also, the deficit, spending, stimulus, etc have not worked. Unemployment, true unemployment, is closer to 20%; his policies, very much socialist, have weakened this country. As has his bowing, kowtowing, and apologizing for America. He has been a disaster. And I’m no Bush fan.
The American public is addicted to political ideology. That is all, both conservatism and liberalism sell us the same nonrealistic nonsense. Both sides operate the fundamentalism of their ideologies are perfect. Yet, people on both sides to claim god, god, god is on their side. Really? Not really, both parties/ideologies are connected to downslope of this country. They sold the American people different sides of the same of idea, and both seek the same, power and money. They use moralistic religious tone to sell themselves to the American masses. The values of their moralistic tones, are just tones, nothing more. If you are a G. Beck or a Obama backer and militant about it, take step back and view they don’t really represent any different from each other. Until then, it is going to be same long running act with different actors and words with the same goal.
@Vince.
C’mon dude. the Majority of Americans lack some sort of health care. It’s an issue. Yes I know that the public school system is a mess and when the economy tanked.
My point was that NONE of these issues are new but Glenn Beck and and company act like these things are all Obama’s fault. Like these issues all started under his administration.
In case you hadn’t seen it already, you may want to check out the blog Hipster Runoff, more specifically, this post: http://altreport.hipsterrunoff.com/2010/09/some-a-hole-writes-book-abt-how-teens-are-inauthentic-christians-calls-them-hipster-x-tians.html
@Rye. You’re flat out wrong. All Americans have access to healthcare. Stop it, this is not disputed. Do we have problems with “health insurance”, yes. I work in the industry; health inusrance issues are the problem, not helathcare. Didnt; intend to “threadjack”, but it is misinformation to say Americans don’t have access to health CARE.
@Vince.
Okay sorry. You don’t need to bite my head off.
You may be right, Vince. We do have access to healthcare, if we want to be broke and destitute for the rest of our lives. Obama is not trying to give access to healthcare. He is trying to give access to health insurance. As you said–insurance is the issue.
My husband was diagnosed with testicular cancer while unemployed in 2005. He had been seeking employment for some time (in other words, he was not just lazy as some people like to assume). We had too many “assets” to qualify for medi-cal, but we couldn’t afford the COBRA insurance we were paying about $2000/month for. Thank God for my husband’s parents, who ended up paying for our insurance. If it hadn’t been for them, I may very well have become a single widowed mother, paying a fortune in medical bills. I am not trying to give you a sob story. I am just saying this is the way it is for thousands, if not millions of Americans.
As it is now, my husband has no access to *affordable* insurance (were he to be laid off again) because he has a pre-existing condition. I am, therefore, all for government regulation of health insurance, as well as spending a few hundred/thousand more in taxes a year. God provided us a way out though family. I would love to be able to be a part of doing that for other people who are stuck in the same place we were in.
Call it socialism if you want–giving it a name doesn’t change the fact that it just might help some people who need it.
I am sorry but America is NOT in a better place these days. Making America go so more in debt is not the answer. Turning America from a Republic/Democracy into some Socialist country is not the answer. Lets turn back to the principles that this country was founded on. Let’s actually take the US C0nstitution seriously and not try to change into something it was never meant to be. Our country was founded on good principles. Lets go back to them before America destroys itself. Turning back to God and choosing to follow Him and loving our neighbor seems like a good place to start.
Generally great music selections.
I am interested to read the book in its entirety. These interviews and the first free chapter online are at the very least intriguing.
shameless plug.
check out our “hipster Christianity” view of the establishment.
Not to much of a mystery for his popularity. He is the modern proponent of the old “God, Family, and County,” By tying the three, he, like the reactionary theologians responding to the American and French revolutions. The problem is that the Gospel of Jesus has to ignored. You cannot serve two masters let alone three.
Interesting thoughts. I posted mine last week here: http://remnantculture.com/?p=1729
Here’s the gist:
“Indeed, it is tempting for us to promote a civil religion — one that will carry our culture from material deprivation all the way to heaven. This blog certainly believes in promoting what could be called “our founding principles,” but such principles alone will not bring about the change we need.
As I’ve said time and time again, our socio-economic systems can be powerful tools for empowering and enabling our individual callings, but we must be careful that we don’t confuse the source of such callings with the systems that assist them.
There is something in the heart of every individual that must come into obedience to God. This can only happen through fundamental transformation through Jesus. If we ignore this, or try to indirectly imply it for populist reasons, we will replace a pseudo-solution for the only Solution.”