Alan Jacobs

I thought this business about “Wisconsin Republicans denying beans to the poor” was a partisan distortion, but apparently not. I haven’t voted for a major-party candidate in twenty-three years, and that’s not likely to change in the near future. Given Republican attitudes towards the poor and black people, and Democratic attitudes towards the unborn and (more recently) towards Christians, and the military adventurism and erosion of civil liberties enthusiastically endorsed by both parties, I can’t possibly vote for any of them. It’s way past time for an alternative to emerge.

[gallery] I thought this business about “Wisconsin Republicans denying beans to the poor” was a partisan distortion, but apparently not. I haven’t voted for a major-party candidate in twenty-three years, and that’s not likely to change in the near future. Given Republican attitudes towards the poor and black people, and Democratic attitudes towards the unborn and (more recently) towards Christians, and the military adventurism and erosion of civil liberties enthusiastically endorsed by both parties, I can’t possibly vote for any of them. It’s way past time for an alternative to emerge.

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My students are often Christians who are old enough to mock mercilessly the people that gave of their time sacrificially to disciple them when they were young but who are not yet mature enough to be able to disciple others. I often find them quick-off-the-draw-ready with a forceful and sophisticated critique of most any traditional religious belief or practice.  

They can be sadly flummoxed, however, by a simple request to explain what is true. If I wonder, “What are some problems with the doctrine of the atonement?” hands fly up all over the room, but if I straightforwardly ask, “What is the gospel?” the room falls strangely silent, and I find myself staring at rows of students quietly avoiding making eye contact.  

To sketch what the gospel is would be to risk a rough draft that someone else would get the joy of critiquing; it would be to express a childlike faith; it would be to do the work of parenting.  

I have therefore increasingly made it my self-imposed task to help my students find their way to their mature identities in a manner that does not make their parents and childhood teachers and pastors the foil in the process. Of course, this does not necessarily mean that they should simply accept what they have inherited unaltered. More and more I have come to value those who model how to no longer hold to the exact version of faith they grew up with while still finding ways to be grateful for and affirming of the community of faith that raised them.

My students are often Christians who are old enough to mock mercilessly the people that gave of their time sacrificially to disciple them when they were young but who are not yet mature enough to be able to disciple others. I often find them quick-off-the-draw-ready with a forceful and sophisticated critique of most any traditional religious belief or practice.  

They can be sadly flummoxed, however, by a simple request to explain what is true. If I wonder, “What are some problems with the doctrine of the atonement?” hands fly up all over the room, but if I straightforwardly ask, “What is the gospel?” the room falls strangely silent, and I find myself staring at rows of students quietly avoiding making eye contact.  

To sketch what the gospel is would be to risk a rough draft that someone else would get the joy of critiquing; it would be to express a childlike faith; it would be to do the work of parenting.  

I have therefore increasingly made it my self-imposed task to help my students find their way to their mature identities in a manner that does not make their parents and childhood teachers and pastors the foil in the process. Of course, this does not necessarily mean that they should simply accept what they have inherited unaltered. More and more I have come to value those who model how to no longer hold to the exact version of faith they grew up with while still finding ways to be grateful for and affirming of the community of faith that raised them.

“I have a book-ish nature. I understand faith the way C.S. Lewis did, which is that I like books that help explain the world to me. A lot of theology helps explain the world. I think reading theology is one of the most rewarding things I did in the course of researching this book. Some of it was by Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik. I read a lot of C.S. Lewis, Augustine, Harry Emerson Fosdick’s ‘On Becoming a Real Person.’ Those books were amazingly useful and were a great education. I wish there were more theology and more religion in the public square for the faithful and those who are not faithful.”

- David Brooks. Some of us are trying, David. Lord knows, some of us are trying.

via tumblr ift.tt/1EWhLaC

robertogreco:

“Some exquisite Katsuhiro Otomo for the morning (from ’Tokyo Metro Explorers’). That last Otomo panel is best seen in sequence.” —@Oniropolis in two tweets (via RT by @timmaughan, links added by me)

I have a book-ish nature. I understand faith the way C.S. Lewis did, which is that I like books that help explain the world to me. A lot of theology helps explain the world. I think reading theology is one of the most rewarding things I did in the course of researching this book. Some of it was by Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik. I read a lot of C.S. Lewis, Augustine, Harry Emerson Fosdick’s ‘On Becoming a Real Person.’ Those books were amazingly useful and were a great education. I wish there were more theology and more religion in the public square for the faithful and those who are not faithful.

[gallery] robertogreco:

“Some exquisite Katsuhiro Otomo for the morning (from ’Tokyo Metro Explorers’). That last Otomo panel is best seen in sequence.” —@Oniropolis in two tweets (via RT by @timmaughan, links added by me)

Now that I’ve resurrected my Tumblr, I’ll just be using this blog to mirror what gets posted there. So if you use RSS you won’t want to subscribe to both, because you’ll be getting the same content twice.

The invention of ‘printing,’ though ingenious compared with the invention of ‘letters,’ is no great matter.