"Everything about you,
My life, is both
Make-believe and real.
We are a couple
Working the night shift
In a bomb factory. ...
One can hear the fire engine
In the distance,
But not the cries for help,

Just the silence
Growing deeper
At the sight of a small child
Leaping out of a window
With its nightclothes on fire."

-----Charles Simic, "Listen"

After spending the first 200 pages of his new book talking about objections to the gospel and reasons for the gospel, Tim Keller devotes the last few pages to the Christian life. Here are some excerpts. Let me know what you think.

"How do we respond to this [gospel]? When we look at the whole scope of this story line, we see clearly that Christianity is not only about getting one's individual sins forgiven so we can go to heaven. That is an important means of God's salvation, but not the final end or purpose of it. The purpose of Jesus' coming is to put the whole world right, to renew and restore the creation, not escape it. It is not just to bring personal forgiveness and peace, but also justice and shalom to the world. God created both body and soul, and the resurrection of Jesus shows that he is going to redeem both body and soul. The work of the Spirit of God is not only to save souls but also to care for and cultivate the face of the earth, the material world...

What does it mean, then, to become part of God's work in the world? What does it mean to live a Christian life? One way to answer that question is to look back into the life of the Trinity and the original creation. God made us to ever increasingly share in his own joy and delight in the same way he has joy and delight within himself. We share his joy first as we give him glory (worshipping and serving him rather than ourselves); second, as we honor and serve the dignity of other human beings made in the image of God's glory; and third as we cherish his derivative glory in the world of nature, which also reflects it. We glorify and enjoy him only as we worship him, serve the human community, and care for the created environment...

The story of the gospel makes sense of moral obligation and our belief in the reality of justice, so Christians do restorative and redistributive justice wherever they can. The story of the gospel makes sense of our indelible religiousness, so Christians do evangelism, pointing the way to forgiveness and reconciliation with God through Jesus. The gospel makes sense of our profoundly relational character, so Christians work sacrificially to strengthen human communities around them, as well as the Christian community, the Church. The gospel story also makes sense of our delight in beauty, so Christians become stewards of the material world, from those who cultivate the natural creation through science and gardening, to those who give themselves to artistic endeavors, all knowing why these things are necessary for human flourishing. The skies and trees sing of the glory of God, and by caring for them and celebrating them we free their voices to praise him and delight us. In short, the Christian life means not only building up the Christian community through encouraging people to faith in Christ, but building up the human community through deeds of justice and service...

Christians then are the true 'revolutionaries' who work for justice and truth, and we labor in expectation of a perfect world in which: 'He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things is passed away (Revelation 21:4)...'

-----Timothy Keller, "The Reason for God"

Simultaneous volcanic eruption and electrical storm in Chile. Holy Moses!

You can see more Here

Aaron Rench: "In the chapter on poetry and religion you start off by saying, 'Art is like Christianity in this way; at its greatest, it can give you access to the deepest suffering you imagine.' Would you say this is why art resists sentimentalism?"

Christian Wiman: "Well, the adjective is important there: greatest. I was trying to point out how the highest moments of art can at once enact our deepest sufferings and provide a peace that is equal to them, and how this is similar to (though lesser than) what I understand to be the deepest truth of Christianity. The peace does not eliminate the sorrow or the tragedy: great art acknowledges intractable human suffering, and Christianity's promise of resurrection is empty without a clear, cold sense of the cross. So yes, art does resist sentimentality, as does, at its best, Christianity. That said, there are all kinds of art, and all kinds of Christianity, that include sentimentality---and are not necessarily vitiated because of that. I love many novels, poems, and pieces of music that have obvious sentimental moments or characters in them, and it seems to me that the daily life of a Christian can't be lived with the kind of austerity I'm describing above. Some people, those inclined to severity and sternness, actually need more sentimentality in their lives, and others who are over-inclined to frivolity and vapid cheerfulness need to be dropped more often into the depths of their beliefs. Art is a good means for achieving both of these."

-----from an interview with the editor of Poetry, Christian Wiman, in this month's Books and Culture

Ladies and Gentlemen, I bring you good tidings! The Hobbit movie is on, as well as a sequel!! Del Toro will direct, and Jackson/Walsh will produce (hopefully they'll write too!).

Check it out here

It was a toss up between Kings of Leon and Wilco for best album of 2007, but I have to give it up to the Kings for growing leaps and bounds over their previous efforts. Enjoy this tasty live performance of "Arizona."

Bobby Kennedy's Speech On the Night MLK Died

This is one of my all time favorite Radiohead tracks, "Maquillador." It was a Bends-era B-side. The video is poor, but it's worth it to me to hear this song live. Great stuff. 1994!

Classic Stewart - What's wrong with cable news...

"A More Perfect Union," Barack addresses issues of race from Philadelphia.

"What belonged to the theater was brought into the church, and what belonged to the church into the theater. The better Christian feelings were held up in comedies to the sneer of the multitude. Everything was so changed into light jesting, that earnestness was stripped of its worth by wit, and that which is holy became a subject for banter and scoffing in the refined conversation of worldly people. Yet worse was it that the unbridled delight of these men in dissipating enjoyments threatened to turn the church into a theater, and the preacher into a play actor. If he would please the multitude, he must adapt himself to their taste, and entertain them amusingly in the church. They demanded also in the preaching something that should please the ear; and they clapped with the same pleasure the comedian in the holy place and him on the stage. And alas there were found at that period too many preachers who preferred the applause of men to their souls’ health."

-----Gregory of Nazianzus, late 4th century

Yes, at Princeton Seminary we really do have too much time on our hands, and too much Karl Barth on the brain. Check out this video spoof of Lazy Sunday. Pay special attention for the hip-hop duo of Schleiermacher and Hegel, as well as the "Orthodoxy" Betty Crocker spoon. Too much.

Scholars from around the world have finally weighed in on the Talpiot Tomb, the so-called "Jesus Family Tomb." Take a look at this article from Princeton for more information.

N.T. Wright recently wrote a critique and encomium for C.S. Lewis' Mere Christianity over at Touchstone. Check it out. I think it's an interesting analysis. Another eminent Anglican, J.I. Packer, wrote something similar about Lewis many years ago, which you can find Here. I think it's interesting to compare what each of these authors appreciated and/or found distressing in Lewis.

"The professorship is something to which some of us are called by God---in the classic sense of Luther and Calvin, such that if we do not do it, we would be acting disobediently."

-----Nicholas Wolterstorff

Six Beatitudes for Exegetes: Cribbed from Beverly Gaventa's lecture this morning....

Blessed are the visionary (those who look at the text)
Blessed are the eavesdroppers (those who pay attention to what people say, and how they say it)
Blessed are the readers for they will have words for the Word
Blessed are the day dreamers (they take the time to wonder imaginatively about the text)
Blessed are the lovers of God, His people and His Scripture, for their risk will be repaid.
Blessed are those who trust that scripture speaks, for they shall hear.

As elated as I was to see Led Zeppelin on stage together again, I must say, it's not Zeppelin without Bonzo. His son is good, but has nowhere near the feel of his father. Bonzo had funk and soul, and you can't mimic that with technical ability alone. So let's all take a moment to appreciate his greatness in memoriam.

E.B. White on Thoreau's Walden,

"I was glad to learn from one of the notes that Thoreau was thirty-six years old before he discovered that he was tying his shoes with a granny knot. A man must take courage from something these days, while tying his shoes, and that is as buoyant a thought as any."

-----E.B. White, from "Writings from the New Yorker: 1927-1976"

Radiohead recently posted a number of live tracks via webcast. They can all be found on youtube now. This is "Headmaster's Ritual" by the Smiths. They also cover Bjork and New Order/Joy Division, as well as playing a couple of their own tunes.

""Justice is turned back,
and righteousness stands at a
distance;
for truth stumbles in the public square,
and uprightness cannot enter.
Truth is lacking,
and whoever turns from evil is despoiled.

The LORD saw it, and it displeased Him
that there was no justice.
He saw that there was no one,
and was appalled that there was no
one to intervene."

-----Isaiah 58:14-16 NRSV