“The Weekend Wanderer” is a weekly curated selection of news, stories, resources, and media on the intersection of faith and culture for you to explore through your weekend. Wander through these links however you like and in any order you like. Disclaimer: I do not necessarily agree with all the views expressed within these articles but have found them thought-provoking.
“Understanding How God Changes Lives: A Conversation with Steve Porter, Rebecca DeYoung, and John Ortberg” – An interview in Conversatio: “Dallas Willard writes ‘Understanding is the basis of care. What you would take care of you must first understand.’ The central aim of Westmont College’s Martin Institute for Christianity and Culture is to help establish Christian spiritual formation as a domain of publicly available knowledge. We want the reality of Christian formation to be more readily understood and turned to as the most reliable information on living life well. We desire to help persons accurately understand spiritual and moral formation so that they will step out on that understanding and adequately care for their lives. To talk through these important issues, Steve Porter, the executive director of the Martin Institute, asked Rebecca DeYoung and John Ortberg who are both Martin Institute Senior Fellows to have a conversation about the role of understanding and knowledge in Christian spiritual and moral formation.”
“Praying the hours with W. H. Auden: The poet’s Horae Canonicae sequence is an underappreciated spiritual classic” – Philip Jenkins in The Christian Century: “In 1955, W. H. Auden published The Shield of Achilles. The poetry collection includes a lengthy sequence of poems that I would rate high among the spiritual and devotional classics of the 20th century but which still receive nothing like the attention they deserve. I am delighted that my Baylor University colleague Alan Jacobs has produced a splendid new edition of that book (from Princeton University Press), with an invaluable introduction and scholarly commentary. The sequence is titled Horae Canonicae, because its seven poems follow the canonical hours of the monastic day. They were originally published separately between 1949 and 1954. It’s difficult to summarize these poems, not least because they are so richly allusive and theologically suggestive: imagine trying to offer a plot summary of Eliot’s Four Quartets. Reasons of space and copyright prevent me from offering extended quotations here. I can only beg you to turn to the original text and lose yourself in Auden’s words. Auden was drawn to Christian faith partly through his interactions with poet Charles Williams, of Inklings fame, and he began to identify publicly as a Christian in 1941. For some years he understood the faith strictly as an internal matter. Gradually, as he encountered the work of Kierkegaard and Reinhold Niebuhr, he acknowledged the need to relate faith to social life and daily interactions, all in the context of a sinful and fallen world.”
“Vatican convenes astrophysicists to discuss black holes, quantum theory” – Claire Giangravé at Religion News Service: “Renowned physicists, including two Nobel Prize winners, will gather at the Vatican Observatory near Rome next week to ponder the unresolved mysteries of the cosmos and to honor the legacy of Georges Lemaître, the priest who first theorized the Big Bang and the expansion of the universe. ‘We think we have put together a dream team that we vehemently hope will lead to some innovative thinking,’ said Fabio Scardigli, a theoretic physicist from the Polytechnic Institute of Milan and one of the organizers of the event, during a news conference Tuesday (June 11) presenting the meeting.
The workshop June 16-21 will bring together experts from two sides of the scientific community: those who study cosmology and the theory of relativity, and those physicists who study quantum theory. Organizers of the event hope that the gathering will foster dialogue about these two different and at times irreconcilable theories.”
“Revival and Revolution: The disputed thesis that underpins MAGA evangelicalism” – John Fea in Commonweal: “On April 5, 2020, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Donald Trump announced via Twitter that he would be streaming the Palm Sunday service at Harvest Christian Fellowship, an Evangelical megachurch in Riverside, California, run by Pastor Greg Laurie. Laurie’s biography is a large part of his appeal. Imagine a member of the Beach Boys getting saved and forming a megachurch. Now seventy years old, he still exudes California cool: always tan and usually clad in blue jeans, denim jackets, sunglasses, and sneakers. Born in Long Beach, Laurie was raised by a single mother—a ‘raging alcoholic,’ in Laurie’s words—who married seven times. At the age of seventeen, Laurie found God through the ministry of charismatic ‘hippie’ preacher Lonnie Frisbee and the Jesus People Movement, which turned California hippies away from acid and sex and, during mass baptisms in the Pacific Ocean, toward Christ. Influenced deeply by the Jesus People Movement, Laurie pursued a dual calling as a pastor and an evangelist. Soon he was holding Billy Graham–style crusades in Anaheim’s Angel Stadium. Today, Laurie’s Harvest Fellowship reaches more than fifteen thousand people at four different campuses, including one in Maui. Trump was already familiar with Laurie, who had earlier visited the White House to offer a ‘history’ lesson to the president, Mike Pence, Ben Carson, and more than a hundred Evangelical leaders gathered for a thank-you dinner for their support during the 2016 campaign. Along with a number of Evangelical leaders and ‘historians,’ Laurie has seized on a dubious, decades-old thesis that posits a close connection between the First Great Awakening and the American Revolution. This history is central to MAGA Evangelicalism, which sees in the former president’s movement signs of a new Great Awakening that will set the stage for another political transformation and solve the country’s countless problems.”
“Oklahoma state superintendent orders schools to teach the Bible in grades 5 through 12” – Sean Murphy at APNews: “Oklahoma’s top education official ordered public schools Thursday to incorporate the Bible into lessons for grades 5 through 12, the latest effort by conservatives to incorporate religion into classrooms. The directive drew immediate condemnation from civil rights groups and supporters of the separation of church and state, with some calling it an abuse of power and a violation of the U.S. Constitution. The order sent to districts across the state by Republican State Superintendent Ryan Walters says adherence to the mandate is compulsory and ‘immediate and strict compliance is expected.’ ‘The Bible is an indispensable historical and cultural touchstone,’ Walters said in a statement. ‘Without basic knowledge of it, Oklahoma students are unable to properly contextualize the foundation of our nation which is why Oklahoma educational standards provide for its instruction.’ Oklahoma law already explicitly allows Bibles in the classroom and lets teachers use them in instruction, said Phil Bacharach, a spokesman for state Attorney General Gentner Drummond.”
“Our Favorite Grace-in-Practice Movies: Grab Some Popcorn (and a Box of Kleenex)” – From the editors at Mockingbird: “Lots to choose from in this outstanding and diverse list of films that capture the dynamism of grace that arrives on the scene when it’s not expected (or deserved). [Note: films appear in chronological order]
The Philadelphia Story (1940): Katherine Hepburn, Cary Grant, Jimmy Stewart, and dear old Uncle Willie — really, what more could you want? And don’t forget younger sister Dinah, swanning in and out, the Greek Chorus of it all. The film follows the aptly named Tracy Lord: woman of aristocracy for whom no man is good enough. On the eve of her second wedding, no one seems able to live up to her expectations: her first husband (Dexter), allowing himself to succumb to the siren of drink; her father (Mr. Lord), a distasteful philanderer; her mother, too weak to stop loving her husband, in spite of his sin. Tracy lords above them all, even when Dexter reappears before her wedding, bringing with him a cold dash of sobriety: “You could be the finest woman in the world if you could just learn to have some regard for human frailty. If only you’d slip a little sometime. But I guess that’s hopeless. Your sense of inner divinity won’t allow that.” Ultimately, Tracy does slip from her ivory tower — thanks to a series of comedic moments, champagne, and moonlight — and finds a surprising mercy is there to catch her. — Derrill Hagood McDavid“
Music: Bob Dylan, “With God on Our Side,” from They Times They Are a-Changin’
Discover more from Matthew Erickson
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
Matthew Erickson 