tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-62964682011-04-22T12:18:46.613+12:00SolemnibusAaron John Stewart: learning to writeAaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comBlogger2881100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1099772628800409342004-11-07T09:20:00.000+13:002005-02-02T16:47:57.183+13:00All things will be made new
Yes, Solemnibus II has arrived. Please update your bookmarks and links.
I intend this to be the last post here.
Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1099470178661509932004-11-03T21:18:00.000+13:002004-11-03T21:25:54.516+13:00 Gospel, Mission and Election (via Matt)
Yet recently McLaren has started to sketch the outlines of his vision of a postmodern church. He sketches a big circle labeled "self," a smaller circle next to it labeled "church," and a tiny circle off to the side labeled "world." "This has been evangelicalism's model," he says. "Fundamentally it's about getting yourself 'saved'—in old-style Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1099021938567461112004-10-29T14:57:00.000+13:002004-10-29T16:57:03.873+13:00Ruminations
In today's Dominion Post several things caught my attention.
1. Apparently there lived in Indonesia, only about 12,000 years ago ET (evolutionary time), a species of hobbit-like people - about 1 metre tall and with a brain capacity approximately one-third of modern humans. There are local legends about 'little people' suggesting these creatures were known to exist - which may, Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1099022123385835212004-10-29T14:50:00.000+13:002004-10-29T17:07:24.926+13:00Of Free Speech and the character of Christian witness (Commentary on the post immediately above)
I have always thought it a mistake to stand on the idea of free speech. Is it a neutral religious principle? It is not. Free speech enshrines the pluralistic voices of many gods.
Yet even that is in some ways a facade, a veneer over a much deeper reality. For, the gods must conform to an order Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1098831472180813792004-10-27T11:53:00.000+13:002004-10-27T11:57:52.180+13:00Church 101
"Explain why the contrast between communities of descent and assent, respectively, is inadequate to explain the characteristics of the church, as discussed by the apostles."
Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1098435268527641272004-10-22T21:43:00.000+13:002004-10-23T17:29:03.323+13:00Walking Small
There's a way of holding oneself responsible, of walking small so that your imprint on the world doesn't hurt others.
It's about the insignificant things we do: cleaning up after oneself, not presuming to take things without asking, being considerate in giving space or perhaps just a kind word. It's about not littering, about being polite and not rude, about not assuming that the Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1098223662985986272004-10-20T11:03:00.000+13:002004-10-20T11:07:42.986+13:00To the life-goblin
Bring out your dragons
And let the boy slay them
Bring out your bogey-men
And let the boy face them
Bring out your years
And let the man laugh
Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1098140732352389562004-10-19T11:51:00.000+13:002004-10-19T12:05:32.353+13:00On the deployment of internet technology and infrastructure:
I'm not arguing that we haven't done anything significant. We are in the process of deploying another package of technology, which is just as significant as the railroads, the telephone, the telegraph, electricity, and so on - all of which were terribly significant. I just don't think it alters the fundamentals of supply and demand, theAaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1097631966752162772004-10-13T14:41:00.000+13:002004-10-13T14:48:59.493+13:00 A question of Kingship
There is a primary drama in the inscripturated story of Israel. It begins when Adam, the first head of mankind and of creation, proved treacherous. He and his administration were therefore cast out of the family household; estranged from God the Father. The major question posed as a result is this: who will lead the way back to the Garden? Who will heal the divorce? Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1097541433115610472004-10-12T13:34:00.000+13:002004-10-12T15:38:18.706+13:00 Negotiating Visions
Beautiful washed-out blue eyes
But then there’s the fact
That he’s a mirage Of something, (but) I’m not sure what.
Beautiful washed-out blue eyes
Pools in the desert Of vapour, I’m mostly sure.
Beautiful washed-out blue eyes
Like alcohol at night Intoxicating, yet I know
Beautiful washed-out blue eyes
A trick of the light. Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1097219811228590392004-10-08T19:49:00.000+13:002004-10-08T20:20:31.080+13:00In a number of posts recently, I have argued that there is no such thing as 'no religion' in the State; there is no such thing as 'neutrality'. Secular is the name of a god, not of nothing. Thus, all of life and every area of it must give allegiance to some god or other, some fundamental principle of order, some basic call to conform.
And so Jared Miller makes the point in Credenda that French Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1096926712375890392004-10-05T10:50:00.005+13:002004-10-05T11:06:24.263+13:00Gmail
I have 5 accounts to give away. Contact me if you'd like one.
Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1096537037383396092004-09-30T20:51:00.000+12:002004-09-30T21:37:17.383+12:00What Staint Paul Really Said, NT Wright
When I first read this in chpater 6, it went right over my head. Didn't even notice. It wasn't until much later, when I was reading his Easter series of meditations, that the point really hit home.
Paul says, in his 2nd letter to the church at Corinth,
We are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making his appeal through us. We appeal on behalf ofAaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1096409294999928072004-09-29T10:05:00.000+12:002004-09-29T11:05:55.693+12:00Lessons learned from chess
#1 Never let your enemy define the problem
Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1096341152183223352004-09-28T14:55:00.000+12:002004-09-29T10:36:50.940+12:00Here is part of another post from the WrightSaid list (which I consider the best Christain discussion board on the interweb). John Shakespeare has this to add to a discussion of individualism in the practice of Lord's Supper/Eucharist in various traditions:
I have succeeded in persuading the church to which I belong to incorporate the Lord's Supper into a larger common meal which we share week Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1096243202010189052004-09-27T11:46:00.000+12:002004-09-27T12:00:56.060+12:00I have James Jordan's permission to republish this post from the WrightSaid list:
My thought is this: that the Lord's Day is the Day of the Lord (identical in Greek). to understand it aright, one must first grasp the LD in the OT, which is not quite the same as the sabbath. For starters, it is not a 24-hour block of time, but any time when God draws near. Hence, the LD is actually the time of theAaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1096232989848713342004-09-27T09:05:00.000+12:002004-09-27T09:13:09.553+12:00If you've ever helped prevent a suicide attempt, you've almost certainly saved the person's life for ever:
Dr. Seiden’s study, “Where Are They Now?”, published in 1978, followed up on five hundred and fifteen people who were prevented from attempting suicide at [San Fransico's Golden Gate] bridge between 1937 and 1971. After, on average, more than twenty-six years, ninety-four per cent of the Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1096168537774781792004-09-26T15:12:00.000+12:002004-09-26T15:15:37.776+12:0030 seconds' walk
From our front door, and we're on the beach. Beautiful shining day. The harbour is sparkly and blue.
So nice.
Luxary.
Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1095834335426604802004-09-22T18:04:00.000+12:002004-09-22T18:30:06.793+12:00Wondering...
A couple of posts ago I outlined a response to the news that reform is underway in parts of the Islamic world. I noted that the reform looks like it is proceeding along dualist lines, whereby religion - the place of faith, and politics - the place of public reason - are seperated. In exactly this dualist way, I said, western Christianity has already given up the public realm of Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1095639071718642412004-09-20T10:58:00.000+12:002004-09-20T13:21:38.056+12:00Lest we forget
There is a series of ads on TV here in NZ, run by one of our mental health agencies. Each ad features a very ordinary person, as desribed by friends and family. The ad ends with the observation that the person has an identified mental illness, and them saying "know me before you judge me".
Sometimes blogging is like a mental illness, I think. It is an obscuring veil over reality.Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1095288208817435612004-09-16T10:34:00.000+12:002004-09-16T10:43:28.816+12:00the self
I've just realised that in our culture 'the self' - that thing which defines 'you' - is thought of as something which is expressed by its choices. In fact, I would even say that our culture thinks that the self is constituted by its choices, and (or especially) in its consumption of pleasure.
Thus, to deny free choice to the self is to deny self-expression, or even self-constitution -Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1095208792118047482004-09-15T11:04:00.000+12:002004-09-15T16:05:20.863+12:00A knife called 'dualism': the castration of Islam
Arts & Letters Daily have a worthwhile article on current reforms occurring in the Islamic world.
Some changes, such to laws regarding women, appear to be driven by the larger cultural (meta-cultural?) shift that has already seen women's legal status change in the Christian west over a much longer period. But imagine the Westminster Divines Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1095142709432887632004-09-14T17:07:00.000+12:002004-09-15T10:54:38.836+12:00I wasn't going to blog about this but...
This afternoon I tried to write a letter to the editor of our church's magazine, Faith in Focus. I wanted to say, 'great legal ethics article by Dan Flinn, but what's with that book review of The Auburn Avenue Theology, Pros and Cons: Debating the Federal Vision?'
I've never read such a load of bullshit in all my life (mind you, I keep saying that - Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1095108203103895562004-09-14T08:39:00.000+12:002004-09-14T08:43:23.103+12:00Well, I've sat here for 5 minutes and there's nothing I can say shortly, so I'll go and have a shower.
Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1094732574274501892004-09-10T01:18:00.000+12:002004-09-10T00:22:54.273+12:00Hmmmm
Change of look. Hope you don't mind. It was an accident, mainly.
I hope to restore old links and sections soon.
Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1094708205047392562004-09-09T17:34:00.000+12:002004-09-09T17:39:03.016+12:00"I started on the left wing and ended up a fullback. I was bloody good. Solid under the high ball, and good at breaking tackles - especially on the run. Hence being in 1st XV. I played 5 seasons, from 1987-1992. We played 5 games in Japan and won 4 of them. The one we lost was our last, against the Nagoya regional team, who later that year were Japan national finalists."
Who's that then?
Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1094612618634429942004-09-08T15:00:00.000+12:002004-09-08T15:05:20.683+12:00John Gray, Heresies: Against Progress and Other Illusions
I reckon this guy gives some clues about how to understand our times...
Gray evinces a Swiftian contempt for our latter-day lay priestlings, direct heirs of the 18th-century philosophes who proclaimed a new paganism but were in fact neo-Christians, "missionaries of a new gospel more fantastical than anything in the creed they imagined Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1094517036830843522004-09-07T10:53:00.000+12:002004-09-07T15:09:43.543+12:00Closing the wombs
How, exactly, does God bring a curse upon a culture?
Well, listen to God's warning to Israel, way back when she first entered the fertile land of Canaan. Canaan was the proto-garden, the replacement for Eden lost, the first establishment of a new place of God's presence and rule. It was governed by Torah, the law of Moses given to Israel as her means of being salt and light toAaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1094505410868667802004-09-07T08:36:00.000+12:002004-09-07T09:16:50.870+12:00When you come together...
I'm interested in exploring in a rather more deliberate way than I have before what it is that Paul and the other apostles consider we do when we come together as God's people.
I have two preliminary thoughts.
The first is that the chief goal of such togetherness appears to be - for Paul - the building up of one another. Everything is measured against that criterionAaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1094177125475826322004-09-03T14:04:00.000+12:002004-09-03T14:05:25.476+12:00synonymy
now there's a word.
Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1094094213416866742004-09-02T14:54:00.000+12:002004-09-02T15:57:54.853+12:00It's sunny outside, I've just revised an important document and done it well; I like my clothes, and I'm pleased with the day.
And I'm listening to Neil Finn & Friends, 7 Worlds Collide. With such feelings it's understandable that I say how exquisite are the harmonies in the climber, angels heap and edible flowers. Makes one want to sing out in elevated exuberance.
And I cannot tell you how Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1094035181347371262004-09-01T22:27:00.000+12:002004-09-02T11:29:26.020+12:00I really like the re-interpretation of 'church' in this group of Christians.
Addendum 2 Sept 11:19am:
Tim has commented that he doesn't like the re-interpretation of 'church', and gives the example of a meeting that he attended which lacked teaching, order and any semblence of reverence. I post my reply here in order to clarify what I am getting
at:
Tim: Yep. Know what you mean. I and others Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1094033381475996242004-09-01T22:04:00.000+12:002004-09-01T22:42:31.696+12:00I'm trying to catch up on my reading.
Here's a good article on the meaning of 'the gospel'. The author argues that it's not an conditional describing how individuals can get to heaven ("repent and be saved"), but the historical, public fact that God made Jesus King. With the support of the background Old Testament material the author provides, I really don't see how anyone could disagree.
...Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1094011543348510102004-09-01T15:53:00.000+12:002004-09-01T16:19:29.196+12:00I blame the isolationist fortress mentality
As NZ Reformed youth, why isn't it part of our education/awareness that there is a long list of prominent achievers/leaders in contempory society who are Christians?
Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1093839748599300712004-08-30T16:01:00.000+12:002004-08-30T17:14:04.746+12:00Dear Sir,
Have people gone mad?
Some are using their democratic voice to wonder aloud how the 'fanatical' opinions and 'hate' of Destiny Church marchers can be suppressed, by law if necessary, so as to stop them 'interfering' with politics.
The voicing of these thoughts is very, very scary. Not least because the perception they encourage of the marchers is as patently absurd as Jews being Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1093404613885307812004-08-25T15:26:00.000+12:002004-08-25T15:30:13.886+12:00Douglas Wilson's The Evils of Pietism has something to say to the concerns of both parties in the conversation below about worship.
I recommend it.
Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1093398014541504422004-08-25T13:29:00.000+12:002004-08-25T13:45:19.773+12:00A conversation
pelican says:
was looking at your blog last night. what do you mean by the 'full bodiedness' of worship God requires, and what does it have to do with incense?
Azza says:
morning. which post are you talking about? I can't remember that...
pelican says:
you'd gone to a high anglican church - it was an old one
pelican says:
i was thinking tho that these rituals of 'worship' are Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1093149447348602892004-08-22T15:47:00.000+12:002004-08-22T16:37:27.346+12:00I am enormously challenged by Wendell Berry's article on Christianity and the survival of Creation.
I hope that its approach will shape the Christianity that I and my people practice. I encourage you to read it too.
Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1093146385795902442004-08-22T15:44:00.000+12:002004-08-22T15:46:25.796+12:00Working worship
"In denying the holiness of the body and of the so-called physical reality of the world -- and in denying support to the good economy, the good work, by which alone the Creation can receive due honor -- modern Christianity generally has cut itself off from both nature and culture. It has no serious or competent interest in biology or ecology. And it is equally uninterested in theAaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1093145502253404402004-08-22T15:23:00.000+12:002004-08-22T15:31:42.253+12:00Dualism at the core
"I have been talking, of course, about a dualism that manifests itself in several ways: as a cleavage, a radical discontinuity, between Creator and creature, spirit and matter, religion and nature, religion and economy, worship and work, and so on. This dualism, I think, is the most destructive disease that afflicts us. In its best-known, its most dangerous, and perhaps its Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1093144437231672032004-08-22T15:12:00.000+12:002004-08-22T15:13:57.230+12:00The love of God
"We will discover that God found the world, as He made it, to be good, that He made it for His pleasure, and that He continues to love it and to find it worthy, despite its reduction and corruption by us. People who quote John 3:16 as an easy formula for getting to Heaven neglect to see the great difficulty implied in the state-ment that the advent of Christ was made possible by Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1092868540312369152004-08-19T10:35:00.000+12:002004-08-19T10:35:40.313+12:00CHQ in the news
Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1092833141246253792004-08-19T00:45:00.000+12:002004-08-19T00:45:41.246+12:00"...in Romans 3.21–31, by anyone’s showing a vital and central passage, Paul makes what most commentators in the reformation tradition regard as a strange shift in verse 29, when he asks ‘Or is God the God of the Jews only?’ (Notice how the NIV, for instance, omits the word ‘Or’.) If he had been talking all along simply about individual sinners being put right with God, we should indeed regard Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1092832523541938022004-08-19T00:33:00.000+12:002004-08-19T00:35:23.540+12:00"The same point emerges in Galatians 2.11–21. Here, beyond cavil I think, the point of vindication is not ‘how someone becomes a Christian’ but the question of table-fellowship: with whom may I, indeed must I, share table-fellowship? Peter’s action in separating himself from Christian Gentiles was not implying that they needed to perform moral good works; it was implying that they needed to Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1092832408356343842004-08-19T00:31:00.000+12:002004-08-19T00:33:28.356+12:00"this new perspective reading of Paul enables us to understand, crucially for some current debates in my church at least, why Paul is very tolerant of differences on some points (particularly food, drink and holy days) and completely intolerant on others (particularly sexual ethics). The boundary lines he insists on blurring (in, for instance, Romans 14 and 1 Corinthians 8) are precisely those Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1092830383223587742004-08-18T23:57:00.000+12:002004-08-19T10:38:53.926+12:00"I am fascinated by the way in which some of those most conscious of their reformation heritage shy away from Paul’s clear statements about future judgment according to works. It is not often enough remarked upon, for instance, that in the Thessalonian letters, and in Philippians, he looks ahead to the coming day of judgment and sees God’s favourable verdict not on the basis of the merits and Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1092830122575018792004-08-18T23:48:00.000+12:002004-08-18T23:55:22.576+12:00"...here is the first statement about justification in Romans, and lo and behold it affirms justification according to works! The doers of the law, he says, will be justified (2.13). Shock, horror; Paul cannot (so many have thought) have really meant it. So the passage has been treated as a hypothetical position which Paul then undermines by showing that nobody can actually achieve it; or, by Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1092813739533690192004-08-18T19:16:00.000+12:002004-08-18T19:22:19.533+12:00Crescendos of the soul
You built the windows high.
And said it would last forever.
You stare all night at the empty sky.
To keep his thoughts together.
To see the angel once again.
She came to him back when
His life was full of promise.
And he swore that he had all he needed then.
Swore it would last forever.
To see the angel once again.
To see the angel once again.
He wouldn’t let her go.
Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1092799981181119962004-08-18T15:25:00.000+12:002004-08-18T16:48:34.656+12:00In praise of peaceful mothering
I have to say that I am full of admiration for David and Angela's situation.
Ange wanted a home birth, surrounded by the familiar and the comforting. If you know her, I will let her tell you about the labour and birth. When she told me, it was very obvious that her choice had been the right one. She is pefectly relaxed, Lucy is very contented, and David is now Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1092717270330593742004-08-17T16:34:00.000+12:002004-08-18T15:34:09.736+12:00When Paul comes to town
"...when Paul comes into a town and declares that Jesus is Lord, no doubt explaining who Jesus was, the fact and significance of his death and resurrection, and so on, then the Spirit is at work, mysteriously, in the hearts and minds of the listeners, so that, when some of them believe in Jesus, Paul knows that this is not because of his eloquence or clever argument but Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1092710500897413352004-08-17T14:34:00.000+12:002004-08-17T14:41:40.896+12:00Civilisation as a power and principality
"The simple posing of these questions makes one thing clear: maintaining a civilization is far easier than pursuing our truest ends. Any civilization tends as a matter of course to turn its members toward an elemental dependency of body and soul on the grand, overarching political and economic system it has developed to sustain and organize human life. Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1092709733322581022004-08-17T14:26:00.000+12:002004-08-17T14:28:53.323+12:00Don't do the dishes
There's no point.
http://www.newpantagruel.com/issues/1.3/realism_against_reality.php (via matt)
Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1092708223745258602004-08-17T14:03:00.000+12:002004-08-17T14:04:26.300+12:00"My proposal is this. When Paul refers to ‘the gospel’, he is not referring to a system of salvation, though of course the gospel implies and contains this, nor even to the good news that there now is a way of salvation open to all, but rather to the proclamation that the crucified Jesus of Nazareth has been raised from the dead and thereby demonstrated to be both Israel’s Messiah and the world’sAaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1092707937287562522004-08-17T13:57:00.000+12:002004-08-17T14:00:06.286+12:00"...what I find frustrating is the refusal of the traditionalists to ... recognise that some of us at least are brothers in Christ who have come to the positions we hold not because of some liberal, modernist or relativist agenda but as a result of prayerful and humble study of the text which is and remains our sole authority."
Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1092707429834279192004-08-17T13:49:00.000+12:002004-08-17T13:50:29.836+12:00"For me, the question has always been ‘But does this make sense of the text?’, not ‘But will this fit into some abstract scheme somewhere?’"
Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1092706859617568292004-08-17T13:39:00.000+12:002004-08-17T13:51:29.996+12:00"When I began research on Paul, thirty years ago this autumn, my aim was to understand Paul in general and Romans in particular better than I had done before, as part of my heartfelt and lifelong commitment to scripture, and to the sola scriptura principle, believing that the better the church understands and lives by scripture the better its worship, preaching and common life will be. I was Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1092695978551203922004-08-17T10:31:00.000+12:002004-08-17T10:46:07.966+12:00Shine on you crazy diamond
Sometimes it's a real mission to see difficulties and challenges as fun or desirable things. Who would be mad enough to start a company?
You have to do everything. I mean, everything. Not just the things you're qualified to do. Not just the things you enjoy doing. Not just the things for which someone else takes a larger responsibility as your leader or boss. Not justAaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1092613656773488232004-08-16T11:45:00.000+12:002004-08-16T11:47:36.773+12:00Woooo-hooooo!
Many congratulations to David and Angela on the birth of baby Lucy mid-evening yesterday!
Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1092281149549185492004-08-12T15:24:00.000+12:002004-08-12T15:25:49.550+12:00Ok, so congratulate me. I have a list of things I want to blog about but I have a more urgent list of things that I need to do for work, so I am resisting the urge to blog.
Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1092192661817411632004-08-11T14:47:00.000+12:002004-08-11T15:40:33.700+12:00mystery, o mystery enigmatic
why is it that a coffee and a conversation can completely alter the disposition of mind & body?
why is it that someone can hop on a bus, and without saying a word, rock my world?
sing it: I'm a believer
Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1092024433568436782004-08-09T13:55:00.000+12:002004-08-09T16:10:47.880+12:00A short treatise on absolutes and postmodernity
The post below has got me thinking. There are two basic options for understanding what someone might mean when they argue against absolute truth.
Someone may be denying an independent reality 'out there'. They would see our environment as somehow constructed in the interaction between subject (the perciever) and object (the percieved). This is theAaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1092015578345343812004-08-09T13:10:00.000+12:002004-08-09T13:40:30.063+12:00musings
Since YHWH chose, out of all the things on earth, to manifest Himself as fire and cloud (to Israel), do we say that fire and cloud are absolutely true? It sounds wierd, doesn't it?
In the same way, perhaps, we should keep our distance from the absoluteness of any words used to describe God. Devices such as words, fire and cloud can point away from themselves and tell us something about Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1092004677073150052004-08-09T10:19:00.000+12:002004-08-09T10:42:44.316+12:00The wind blows his tears back like the earpieces of a pair of spectacles. The bridge has begun to shine. He turns and sees that the sun has risen and is making a path to him over the water.
He is held, though he does not hold. He is caught up again in the old pattern of entrances: of minds into minds, of minds into place, places into minds. The pattern limits and complicates him, singling him Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1091680928441190212004-08-05T16:36:00.000+12:002004-08-05T16:42:08.440+12:00Out the Window
Wellington can be so...beautiful. Today the streets are dry, and the day is misty and still. There's low cloud hanging around the tops of the hills like wraiths, and it feels like we're in a mountain village or - at the least - some place wrapped in the sense of home, of here and now, from which the outside world is faded away. It might be out there somewhere, I guess, but Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1091678012573062242004-08-05T15:13:00.000+12:002004-08-05T15:53:32.573+12:00Marshal your evidence
I give you a shnippet of NT Wright's thoughts on The Passion. It is worth saying that all the particular criticisms he gives are new to me, and strike me as both reasonable and informed. I find myself liking the movie slightly less than I did (though I still intend seeing it again in the late afternoon of next Good Friday).
Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1091672765169399702004-08-05T14:22:00.000+12:002004-08-05T14:26:05.170+12:00Ups to Garth George: the responsibilities of the child (via Dan)
Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1091595678605822152004-08-04T16:41:00.000+12:002004-08-04T17:18:29.530+12:00The hardship of faith
Part of the difficulty, it seems to me, in experiencing the despondency of faith is that the circumstances of trial are never quite what I expect. They always put me in a place that I had not already explored with my imagination and populated with my fantasies of 'standing strong'. They put me, in other words, in a place uttery foriegn, utterly different to the one I had Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1091510970515653372004-08-03T17:04:00.000+12:002004-08-03T17:29:30.516+12:00My stomach twists
Messers Wilson and Jones write that homosexuality is God's curse on a culture led astray by the church. I am tempted to dismiss the analysis; but parts ring true. Other parts I am already deeply committed to. Not beyond changing my mind, but enough so that when I think of the parts I hesistate over, my guts end up in a knot.
They conclude, for instance, that -
"True Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1091508007954534482004-08-03T16:35:00.000+12:002004-08-03T16:41:04.963+12:00Worthy to partake
There is a most fascinating series of comments after this post of John Barach's, reflecting on the issue of visitors turning up to a Lord's Supper celebration, and when invited, saying "no thanks, I had it last week".
I especially and warmly commend comment #7 to your attention. Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1091493008419674402004-08-03T12:26:00.000+12:002004-08-03T14:28:09.143+12:00Psalm 118
Here's my attempted reconstruction of the voices in Psalm 118. There seem to be 4:
1. the voice of the choirmaster, framing the song
2. the voice of the priesthood or religious leaders, instructing and blessing Israel
3. the voice of Israel, narrating her history and thanks,
4. the voice of the assembly, confessing faith
It's a great Psalm. It has the form of a choreographed liturgy,Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1091161368570277662004-07-30T16:24:00.000+12:002004-07-30T16:26:44.336+12:00Impetus to clarity:
"The gospel message — new life — and the gospel medium — a new people — are simultaneously one."Our witness or 'truth' as a church cannot be reduced to a form of words or a measuring of ceremonial marks. Christ prayed that his followers would be one, because they function as the exibition, proof and demonstration of God's faithfulness in sending him. They become God's Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1091161455113273372004-07-30T16:23:00.000+12:002004-07-30T16:27:59.706+12:00Imagine
Imagine what would happen if every divisive, angry argument, every tension-filled meeting, every refusal to wash each others' feet in our hundreds of inventive ways, was seen as undermining the gospel. Simply and only because the actors clearly cannot value others above themselves, cannot exercise humility, patience, forbearance, and love.
Imagine.
We are the gospel. I stand Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1091073457140417582004-07-29T15:56:00.000+12:002004-07-29T15:57:37.140+12:00Visions of the world: China & America Collide
Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1090904554524852082004-07-27T16:58:00.000+12:002004-07-28T09:46:57.986+12:00On the church (from Buderhof's Daily Dig)
The biblical notion of church, the “ekklesia,” however, is far more radical. It is a community that is called out, called together and called forth—a community in which the presence of the risen Christ transforms existence itself. Church is the locus of Christ’s ongoing work of reconciliation and redemption, where people exhibit a new way of living Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1090903339016379092004-07-27T16:37:00.000+12:002004-07-27T17:08:34.570+12:00Triumph of discovery
I have spent hours of frustration in the past - and I mean hours - trying to shift emails from Outlook Express, on my laptop, to Outlook, on my desktop.
And now I have a bright idea. Why don't I attach all the emails I recieved on my laptop to a new email, and send it to myself? If I retrieve that email on my desktop, I should be able to save the attachments.
Well, Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1090901147763288012004-07-27T15:43:00.000+12:002004-07-27T16:06:39.790+12:00It occurred to me on the plane, flying up high, that being a christian has brought me much more pain than joy.
I wonder if this is true?
If it is, what, if anything, should be done?
No doubt if you try and find an answer you will feel as unhinged as I do.
Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1090413006103660552004-07-22T00:26:00.000+12:002004-07-27T16:47:48.846+12:00Reporting In
Ok here's the gist of it: I lost all motivation to work. In the last wee while I've discovered that -
My current role in my company is not satisfying (my talents and gifts lie elsewhere), I am not sure what value my current role has, I need to make some hard decisions. I've created a company that pays me enough to live on (with care), and to be honest it's easy to sit back and Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1089955966275432372004-07-16T14:28:00.000+12:002004-07-17T01:30:31.553+12:00Torah and distinctives
In this post I attempt to get crystal clear what 'legalism' means, how Paul dealt with 'the law', what this meant for Israel, and what it means for us.
Torah (the law) had a specific function. Israel was signed and sealed by Torah as God's people: set aside for His purposes.
When Paul talks about 'works of the law', he means the acts appointed by Torah. The effect of Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1089864590392060822004-07-15T14:23:00.000+12:002004-07-15T17:30:02.570+12:00In order to be restored to God's household, the Jews thought that gentiles "...needed to do what the Jews had always needed to do: get circumcised and follow the Mosaic law. This was not a call to legalism, but it was a call to be faithful to the old covenants as if those covenants had not been affected by Jesus’ Advent. Paul responded by showing that Jesus had in fact fulfilled the promise to Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1089850599160674472004-07-15T11:46:00.000+12:002004-07-15T12:45:40.906+12:00Comment on the Lawless Prophet
If, as I have been saying, covenant baptism reflects God's love for the entire order of creation, then creating urban environments that are ugly, oppressive, and degrading reflects a rebellion against God's purposes. And postwar urban development has been just that.
But where are the voices of the prophets, in words and symbols telling the alternate story of Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1089238919788199672004-07-08T10:09:00.000+12:002004-07-08T10:36:05.403+12:00Ceasar Microsoftus
"Make no mistake: Microsoft really hates the web. The new browser war may appear to be about the emergence of Mozilla and friends with their polished eye-candy interfaces, but it's really about Microsoft versus the W3C. Internet Explorer is Microsoft's blocking tactic—never to be properly web-compliant, never to give the W3C a day in the sun—and Longhorn technology is the Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1089234770409543012004-07-08T09:12:00.000+12:002004-07-08T09:28:02.193+12:00John’s baptism; a new house for creation
One week ago we had our usual Wednesday night bible study. Richard led it ably, and there was good discussion & exploration of John’s gospel, particularly the first chapter. John introduces Jesus through the ministry and testimony of John the Baptist, who began baptizing Israel out in the desert, probably when Jesus was in his mid-late 20s, and (as Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1089178576089368872004-07-07T17:22:00.000+12:002004-07-07T21:51:18.810+12:00Some Moments
There are some moments that become extraordinary. For me it's a slightly detached feeling: I gaze off into space - or at least, let my eyes lose focus while somehow still looking. I become very still, watching the hands that mold - clay around a pot, clothes into a wrapping, whatever it happens to be. But each movement is like a tingle, like a little shot of electricity deep insideAaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1089006068399189942004-07-05T17:41:00.000+12:002004-07-05T17:42:25.063+12:00Native Tree Giveaway at Civic Square: Greater Wellington Regional Council is giving away 1000 native trees in the Civic Square on July 7 (Wednesday) from 12.30 pm. They want to "encourage Wellingtonians to plant more natives and to value native trees". I quite like their blurb, too: "Greater Wellington promotes Quality for life by ensuring our environment is protected while meeting the economic, Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1089006034577832932004-07-05T17:40:00.000+12:002004-07-05T17:40:34.576+12:00Jonathan Marinus, an old friend of many pipes, visited us last Monday night. We talked about lots of cool stuff. In particular, we discussed - with Matt and Tim and Jono - the possibility of a small publishing enterprise, initially focused around an insert to Wellington's bulletin, but looking to grow to something between a newsletter and a magazine. There are plenty of amazing writers, talented Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1089005991371819412004-07-05T17:39:00.000+12:002004-07-08T13:08:10.930+12:00In draft at the moment is a rather large post, stimulated by our last Wednesday night bible study. It's about John the Baptist - his role, and how his baptism relates to ours. I'm really quite pleased with it so far, because I think it's both practical and theologically satisfying. I'm excited that I'm committing my reflections on baptism 'from John to us' to paper for the first time, and also Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1089004729737137882004-07-05T17:17:00.000+12:002004-07-05T17:41:26.650+12:00Finally bought a new vacuum for the flat and the boys did a big tidy-up on Saturday morning after our prayer meeting. It's looking good.
Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1088731225118888252004-07-02T13:16:00.000+12:002004-07-02T13:20:25.116+12:00Beauty
It is such a beautiful day. The sun is shining and there's a light breeze - the beach is calm, the water really blue, and the harbour looks fantastic. So nice to be living where I am.
I recommend Balderdash and beer. And Jono, Tim, Richard and Matt. Except Matt needs beats to stay awake.
And we have the boys' prayer meeting tomorrow morning. Awesome.
Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1088644634407432392004-07-01T13:16:00.000+12:002004-07-01T13:17:14.406+12:00I know how he feels
Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1088644485942987322004-07-01T13:10:00.000+12:002004-07-01T19:06:53.116+12:00Abseiling
On Saturday July 10, various people at Creative HQ will be jumping off our building. We're also having a BBQ and drinking various types of alcohol. The order in which these things are done will be interesting. The cost of the abseil will be $12 or less, apparently.
This happy event will begin at about 11:30, and finish...whenever. DO let me know if you would like to come.
Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1088572009587930262004-06-30T17:01:00.000+12:002004-06-30T17:06:49.586+12:00The good oil
sirlochlin got another client; our largest to date. I signed the contracts on Friday and they're just winging their way back to me with counter-signatures.
Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1088557454947013522004-06-30T12:40:00.000+12:002004-07-01T09:26:18.606+12:00Threads
If you are interested in either
1. Romans, the argument of the early chapters, or
2. an example of how systematic theology relates to exegesis, especially in obscuring it, or
3. the relation of sin to transgression, either a. in Paul, or
b. in historical-redemptive roles, taken by Gentiles and Isreal, respectively, or
c. as categories or themes which suggest we need modifications to Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1088555208833113352004-06-30T12:25:00.000+12:002004-06-30T12:26:48.833+12:00The Unborn Image
Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1088554150497999862004-06-30T12:06:00.000+12:002004-06-30T12:09:10.496+12:00Matthew Baird's poetry does strange things to my insides
This is so cool. Titleless, I would call it She.
Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1088553132490132832004-06-30T11:49:00.000+12:002004-06-30T11:52:12.490+12:00Another reason to give thanks for Pope John Paul II
Steps toward reconciliation between different Christian communities
Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1088473641282638882004-06-29T13:26:00.000+12:002004-06-29T13:47:21.283+12:00Cultivating triumphs
Two things:
1. David and Ange very nicely gave me a mini-garden in a lovely painted pot late last year. It consisted of 6 types of cacti. At first I had it in the old office, but it didn't do so well - lack of natural light I think. I took it home to the flat, but it didn't do well there either - horrible aphid infestation and then a curious black fuzzy stuff on some of Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1088468285074673102004-06-29T12:05:00.000+12:002004-06-29T12:18:05.076+12:00I have a theory
A major reason Reformed culture tends to schismatism is because our most powerful stories are the legends of those who heroically stood up for 'the truth', being prepared to fight and split over ideas. Athanasius, Luther, Machen, et al.
It is ironic, I think, that a tradition in which abstract concepts have triumphed as 'the truth' nonetheless continues to reveal what reallyAaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1088133395738652992004-06-25T14:47:00.000+12:002004-06-25T15:31:35.053+12:00Hold not thy peace
The solemn imprecations of the psalms are not antithetical to worship beside the lime pits. They are a genuine and deep part of the response of a people who look to God to vindicate them against evil. And they should fall from the lips of those who, in behalf of God's people oppressed and persecuted, share their prayer. And they move me to tears.
Hold not thy peace, O Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1088055312185982022004-06-24T17:17:00.000+12:002004-06-24T17:35:12.186+12:00machen's children
Sometimes Elder Snoek gives me what I suspect are warnings against being included in this observation:
"Writers have gone to great lengths to read their opponents' words and motivations in the worst possible sense (often worse than possible) and to present their own ideas as virtually perfect, rightly motivated and leaving no room for doubt. Such presentations are scarcely Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6296468.post-1088049244852492382004-06-24T15:52:00.000+12:002004-06-24T16:03:16.326+12:00Of wells and fairies
I wrote this story on August 4, 2000 -
Well. By the way, did I mention that my garden has a well? Sometimes the fairies like to play in the well. I don't know why. Sometimes they tell me to have a go too, but I say no. I am a wee bitty scared of the well. It is deep, and dark at the bottom, and once in it's hard to get out.
Sometimes the light is at just the right Aaronhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15651269999307633168noreply@blogger.com