for my newborn baby girl, who arrived in the world yesterday afternoon extremely underweight, and is now in the special care unit at the hospital.
UPDATE: Doctors are very reassuring and say that, all being well, she should make it out of hospital in three or four days. Thank you so much for all the prayers.
Today might be the day!
Consensus – received opinion – accepted wisdom. Different expressions for a similar sort of thing, a framework for understanding the world. We can’t do without them, they are the ‘inherited background against which we judge between true and false’ (Mr Ludwig).
That does not mean, however, that they are not open to investigation and discussion, and that they can be quite shockingly disconnected from reality. (Mr MacIntyre has a good discussion on how to go about it in this book).
I’ve often in my own mind thought of the secular mind-set which is dominant in Western society as a ‘bubble’. Within the bubble it all makes sense; the assumptions are reinforced by the conversations taking place with other people within the bubble; those with assumptions outside the bubble are generally denigrated for being more or less mad or stupid. Those criticised tend to be conservatives, but there is an equally cogent left-wing critique of the bubble, so it isn’t just a left-wing/right-wing divide.
I was put in mind of this by reading these two articles, which each touch on the fact that the establishment bubble is becoming more and more disconnected from reality – and, I would argue, is about to burst. That bursting will lead to us living through some very interesting times.
Victor Davis Hanson: Pity the post-modern cultural elite
American Spectator: The American Ruling Class
A readable book gathering together several themes in Muhammad’s life. He doesn’t come out of it too well, which isn’t surprising considering who the author is. There were a few moments when I thought Spencer was lacking in generosity, but, frankly, I think his main point is incontestable: given that Muhammed is seen in Islam as the perfect man, and to be emulated, the fact that supported mass slaughter, had a questionable approach to women and became incredibly hostile to Jews and Christians leads to a rather problematic inheritance. Spencer makes the case that what we experience today has direct and clear antecedents in the life of Muhammad himself.
Byron and I have been having a conversation about three major crises – financial, resource limits and ecological (we differ on the severity of the third). I think the cultural clash with Islam – probably focussing on Iran, and possibly involving a revolution against the house of Saud – will be a fourth world-changing element over the next ten years.
Sam’s thought for the day:
The problem with (some) Christians is that they don’t imitate Jesus enough.
The problem with (some) Muslims is that they imitate Muhammed too closely.
Underwhelming, and I’ve been trying to put my finger on why.
Suspect number one has to be Leonardo di Caprio. I know that the little girls love him, and I actually think that he _can_ act… he just didn’t have the weight for this part. Too pretty? Too blond? Didn’t help that he was up against Day-Lewis.
Suspect number two, though, is that very same performance from Day-Lewis. Every so often he seemed to be impersonating Robert de Niro, which I guess was deliberate, but was veryoff putting. I kept expecting him to say something about milkshake to little Leo.
Suspect number three has to be studio interference, which apparently was extensive. Yet even with a further half hour or so of coverage, it’s not as if the film was too short – more like the opposite. Is it simply that Scorcese need to be reined in? Don’t know.
Some great moments, mainly involving Day-Lewis, but I finished it feeling ‘so what?’ Not a good sign. At some point I’ll watch it again with the Director’s commentary, and see if that reveals anything useful.
3/5
(Rude language warning)
John Richardson – always an interesting read, and from whom I learn a lot, even in disagreement – has a post up outlining five tests of orthodoxy, taken from the 39 Articles. Herewith a commentary on his five tests, and an alternative list of five.
Give your response to the following statements (adapted from the 39 Articles):
1. “Christ … truly suffered, was crucified, dead and buried, to reconcile his Father to us, and to be a sacrifice, not only for original guilt, but also for all actual sins of people.”
2. “Original Sin … is the fault and corruption of the Nature of every man … whereby man is very far gone from original righteousness, and is of his own nature inclined to evil … and therefore in every person born into this world, it deserveth God’s wrath and damnation.”
3. “We are accounted righteous before God, only for the merit of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ by Faith, and not for our own works or deservings: Wherefore, that we are justified by Faith only is a most wholesome Doctrine.”
4. “Holy Scripture doth set out to us only the Name of Jesus Christ, whereby men must be saved.”
5. “It is not lawful for the Church to ordain any thing that is contrary to God’s Word written, neither may it so expound one place of Scripture, that it be repugnant to another.”
What one would be looking for in the answers would be, amongst other things, an absence of ‘nuancing’…
Herewith my ‘nuancing’ 🙂
1. I would start to nuance at the point of the word ‘sacrifice’. What is meant or understood by it? A Pagan concept (like King Kong – appeasing an angry monster) or a fully Biblical concept? – by which I mean something much broader and richer than we’ve inherited from the Reformation era. I would understand the phrase ‘bearing our sins’ in a different way to that associated with penal substitution.
2. Wouldn’t want to nuance this much – perhaps just pointing out that we were originally created in God’s image, and that our sharing in divinity is more basic than our sin.
3. The nuancing would be about how to understand faith; I agree with the substance.
4. I don’t agree with this one; that is, I think that the emphasis upon the Name is not something that Jesus himself would recognise (and I think it undercuts a proper doctrine of the Trinity). I would, however, affirm that none can come to the Father except by Him.
5. This I disagree with (see discussion here), mainly because I think it is in itself incoherent and unScriptural (lurking behind it is, I would argue, a faulty understanding of what the Word of God means).
John suggests that those who disagree, substitute in other tests. I’m not averse to there being tests of orthodoxy. If the teaching ministry is essential to ordination (which I think it is) then there does need to be something to mark out what is acceptable and what is not. I think my five tests would look something like this (comments very welcome):
Do you accept:
1) the doctrine of the Holy Trinity as understood and expressed in the Niceno-Constantinopolitan creed?
2) that Jesus of Nazareth was raised from the dead on the third day, and appeared to Peter and the disciples?
3) that Jesus of Nazareth is Lord of all, and the one to whom you owe your final allegiance?
4) that the Church of England is a part of the one, holy, catholic and apostolic church?
5) the discipline of the Church of England, and will you give canonical obedience to those in authority over you, in all things lawful and honest?
Obviously, my emphases are rather different to John’s!
The existence of Israel is repudiated by the majority of Arab and Muslim governments, and the organisation Hamas is explicitly dedicated to the destruction of Israel.
Does it have a future?
The population of Israel is approximately 7.5m.
The population of the states neighbouring Israel (Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon) is 112m.
The Arab population as a whole is 358m.
The Muslim population is 1.57 billion.
Israeli GDP is 200,000 million USD
Arab world GDP is 1,624,042 million USD
Around 1200 people have been killed in Israel by terrorists since 2000.
This is the context in which Israel is repeatedly attacked by the West, which tends to have an attention span shorter than a goldfish. No wonder the people there are wanting their children to emigrate.
I came across a reference to something that President Obama said last year in Strasbourg: “I believe in American exceptionalism, just as I suspect that the Brits believe in British exceptionalism and the Greeks believe in Greek exceptionalism.”
