The Weekend Wanderer: 19 March 2022

March 19, 2022March 17, 2022 Matt EricksonLeave a comment

“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 the articles

Ukraine rubble “Wartime Prayers of Ukraine’s Evangelicals” – Jayson Casper in Christianity Today: “The Ukrainian church needs support. But so do the individuals who shepherd the body of Christ. Often they are lost behind the headlines and statistics of war. Even their quotes fail to convey the full depth of their struggle. Christianity Today asked Ukrainian evangelical leaders to help readers enter their war-torn world by sharing a glimpse of it. Each provided a Bible verse that has proven meaningful for perseverance, prayer requests for both concrete personal needs and more profound spiritual longings, and a referral to how readers can get involved.”

webRNS-kyiv-tv-tower1 “Catholic theologians question the morality of Ukraine’s violent resistance” – Thomas Reese in Religion News Service: “The response of Catholic moral theologians to the Russian invasion of Ukraine has been universally negative. ‘The war in Ukraine is a spiritual, human and ecological catastrophe,’ said Eli S. McCarthy, a peace activist at Georgetown University’s Justice and Peace Studies, in a recent email to me. The view is shared by Catholic pacifists as well as followers of the just war theory. There is no justification for the invasion, they agree. The fighting should stop, and the Russian troops should go home. Where Catholic moralists begin to disagree is on what means are appropriate in responding to the invasion. Peace advocates like McCarthy believe that a violent response will make matters worse. He bemoans the fact that ‘we have failed to adequately train people in nonviolent conflict, resistance and civilian-based defense.’…But pacifists aren’t the only ones questioning an armed response to the Russian invasion. The just war theory has never supported fighting a war, even a defensive war, if there is no chance of winning.”

Ambivalent Embodiment “Lenten Privations?” – Scott Cairns in The HuffPost Blog: “I, too, used to puzzle over the idea of “giving up” one thing or another for Lent. Having been brought up within a community of folks whose sense of who they were (Baptists of an exceedingly fundamental sort) was not nearly as strong as their sense of who they weren’t (Catholics), I hadn’t been offered much of an explanation along the way. More recently, having followed my heart to the East (specifically, the very Jewish-inflected early Church of Eastern Christian Orthodoxy), I’ve found a good bit more help in understanding the double whammy of self-deprivation and almsgiving. In that tradition, the period of Great Lent is certainly a period of fasting and self-examination, but it is no less a period of turning one’s attention from oneself to others. That is to say, the fathers and mothers of the Church have constructed an efficacious ascetical program that precludes eating meat and dairy for the duration, but they have coupled that program of self-constraint with an insistence upon giving to those in need….Fair to say, nothing about the Orthodox way is solely a matter of turning away (from sin, bad habits, or certain foods), but is necessarily a matter of turning toward Christ. One finds, as it happens, that when one turns toward Christ, the particulars of sin, etc., are relegated to being behind him. The point here is that the energy of saying “no” to one thing or another is far less efficacious than the energy of saying “yes” to something (Someone) more desirable.”

“Holy Sepulchre Church pavement restoration allows first-time excavation” – Judith Sudilovsky in The Jerusalem Post: “An archaeological study of the floor under the Church of the Holy Sepulchrewill be possible for the first time, after a two-year undertaking to repair and restore its pavement stones got underway in an inaugural ceremony on Monday. This is the second phase of restoration work in the church following the restoration of the Edicule in 2016-2017, revered by Christians as the tomb of Jesus, which was directed by the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate and conducted by an interdisciplinary team from the National Technical University of Athens. The current work is being conducted under the direction of the Custody of the Holy Land in cooperation with the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate and the Armenian Patriarchate, the three historical guardians of the Church, according to the 1852 Status Quo agreement that solidified the territorial division among the Christian communities in the church and other holy Christian sites.”

“As Fewer Americans Attend Church, Can Coffee Shops Fill the Void?” – Dora Mekouar in Voice of America: “Churches and other houses of worship have historically played critical social and political functions in American society. But fewer people are attending religious services, and the decline of churches and other houses of worship threatens to leave a void that could potentially be filled by coffee shops. ‘For so much of American history, the church has really been — or their congregations have really been — essential, providing an unheralded role in providing cohesion and connectedness in communities … encouraging civic engagement and political participation,’ says Daniel Cox, director of the Survey Center on American Life and a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. ‘It was not happenstance or luck that the civil rights movement emerged out of the church,’ Cox says. ‘And you see that cross-culturally … whether it’s in predominantly white rural communities, in the suburbs, wherever, churches have historically been really, really important.'”

128121 “10 Biblical Terms I Wish Christians Had in English” – Jost Zetzsche in Christianity Today: “You’ve probably read the articles about foreign-language words that don’t have an immediate counterpart in English. As a German, I immediately think of schadenfreude, that apparently untranslatable term for, well, schadenfreude—the guilty joy you feel in someone else’s misfortune. Kudos to you virtuous native English speakers for not having your own word for that smug feeling. Other foreign words are also woven seamlessly into daily life, like the Swedish ombudsman, the Finnish sauna, or the Italian pizza. There are many others, of course, especially in a language like English that derived its uncommonly large dictionary from the treasure chests of many languages. Then there are the words that haven’t made it into the English dictionary yet, though they’ve achieved notoriety as beautiful but untranslatable terms. (As a translator, I’ll add that “untranslatable” isn’t exactly true. It’s just that we don’t have a word-to-word equivalent.) This includes terms like Danish hygge, which alludes to a sense of cozy comfort in the company of others, or the Finnish sisu, the concept of hidden inner strength in times of adversity. These words enrich how we view the world and offer insights about their cultures of origin. (Again, I apologize for schadenfreude!) What if we could similarly peel back linguistic barriers to see how other languages and cultures view God through the language they use? For almost five years I’ve been collecting and curating data about how languages around the world translate the Bible in different and often insightful ways. Here are a few examples of words I wish we had in English to understand and communicate with God more deeply.”

Music: Max Richter, “On the Nature of Daylight,” from The Blue Noteboks

The Weekend Wanderer: 29 May 2021

May 29, 2021May 27, 2021 Matt EricksonLeave a comment

7 Books for Pastoral Care “7 Books for Your Pastoral Care Library” – Kelli B. Trujillo compiles this helpful list of recent pastoral care resources at Christianity Today. I have read two of these books (A Burning in My Bones: The Authorized Biography of Eugene H. Peterson by Winn Collier and The Beautiful Community:Unity, Diversity, and the Church at Its Best by Irwyn L. Ince), have two of them on my to-read list (Soul Care in African American Practice by Barbara L. Peacock and The Care of Souls: Cultivating a Pastor’s Heart by Harold L. Senkbeil), and have not heard of the other three. It’s always a joy to find new recommendations to learn and grow as a pastor. “Pastoral care has many expressions, from joyful visits with an elderly parishioner to painful conversations with an adolescent having suicidal thoughts. From the tough work of addressing division and disunity to the tender work of shepherding over the long haul. Here are seven new and recent books that engage and equip pastors for the deep and multifaceted ministry of pastoral care.”

“Character in Crisis: The Challenges of Moral Formation in Higher Education” – Michael Lamb and David Henreckson in conversation at Comment: “This past year was devastating for many institutions of higher education. Jobs were furloughed or lost. Departments shuttered. Many educators were forced to re-evaluate what is really central to our chosen vocation. With all this impermanence, it seems a luxury to talk about ‘moral character,’ or the old trifecta of truth, beauty, and goodness. So, in these austere days, is there still a central place for moral formation in the university? Or is that a peripheral concern when you are living in survival mode?”

28corbinembedleaves “The Abyss of Beauty: The Art of Seeing the Natural World” – Ian Marcus Corbin in Plough Quarterly: “One afternoon last summer, I was sitting on a bench in a small urban park, my youngest son Leonard asleep in his stroller. I’d consciously chosen to leave my iPhone at home, determined to look around me as I went. It’s an ongoing ethical project, a way of life I aspire to and too rarely achieve. I have a running suspicion that I could really, deeply love life, or a day or afternoon at the very least, if I could just be quiet and look, stop the incessant scheming and worrying and mental grappling. When Gerard Manley Hopkins sits still, he finds that the natural world is ‘charged with the grandeur of God,’ and exults in the knowledge that its ‘blue-bleak embers’ ‘fall, gall themselves, and gash gold-vermillion.’ That’s what I want. I want to see embers, blue-bleak and dying, to see that when they fall and gall themselves, gold-vermillion gashes out into the visible world. How different would that be from my current life of cars and sidewalks and text exchanges, of long nights in my restless, thought-infested bed? Perhaps we can see ourselves to life.“

Screen Shot 2021-05-27 at 3.27.50 PM “For Cosmopolitan Christians, Secular Approval Is a Common Temptation” – Justin Giboney at Christianity Today: “A few years ago, I was asked to speak about the gospel’s justice imperative at a local Christian high school. Upon arrival, I was escorted through campus by a young administrator, who thanked me for coming to engage a topic the school’s elders had ignored for too long. With Dietrich Bonhoeffer–like resolve, he and another young teacher confided that they were subversively trying to change the culture at the school. I immediately, and perhaps hastily, commended their efforts….Without a doubt, the young educators’ concerns were legitimate. Deep, disruptive change was necessary, but the more we talked, the more I grew concerned that their approach was misguided. They were espousing a plainly secular progressive framework, unrefined by the truth and moral order of the gospel. They had an infatuation with trending secular theories, without guardrails to keep them from taking concepts like intersectionality and inclusion into unbiblical territory. Those ideas can be helpful. But they should never be followed uncritically, because they can lead to identity idolatry, which would have us embrace broken aspects of ourselves. There’s a difference between celebrating parts of our identity and centering or exalting identity to the point where it naturally justifies some and condemns others. These brothers correctly identified an old problem, but their solutions were generically pop culture oriented and flat.”

Tulsa Race Massacre “How 24 Hours of Racist Violence Caused Decades of Harm” – A good friend of mine first made me aware of something I never remember learning in history class: the 1921 Tulsa, Oklahoma, race massacre. In the span of twenty-four hours, a thriving African-American community in Greenwood (sometimes called “Black Wall Street“) was decimated following the arrest of a young black man on suspicion of assaulting a white woman. While the charges were never proven, the impact on the African-American community was not just in lives and economics for a brief time, but sent ripples that effected generations. Jeremy Cook, a labor economist, and Jason Long, an economic historian, both at Wheaton College (IL) explore the wide-ranging impact in this powerful article in The Atlantic.

“Russell Moore to Join Christianity Today to Lead New Public Theology Project” – “Christianity Today is announcing the hiring of Russell Moore to serve as a full-time public theologian for the publication and to lead a new Public Theology Project. ‘We could not be more pleased with the addition of Russell Moore in this role,’ said Christianity Today’s president and CEO, Timothy Dalrymple. ‘Russell has established himself as one of the most significant evangelical voices of our time. He illuminates the relevance of the gospel to the whole of life, from everyday matters of faith to the great debates in our society and culture. Importantly, he does all of this in a voice that demonstrates what we at Christianity Today call beautiful orthodoxy, weaving together a deep commitment to the historic integrity of the church with a generous, charitable, and humble spirit.'”

Music: Max Richter, “1. Spring,” Recomposed by Max Richter – Vivaldi – The Four Seasons

The Weekend Wanderer: 16 January 2021

January 16, 2021February 12, 2021 Matt EricksonLeave a comment

patient endurance “Word for the year: patient-endurance” – Ian Paul at Psephizo: “Last week, in our mid-week church group, we were reflecting on what God has been teaching us during 2020. Various people shared experiences, and particular biblical passages or verses—but one person shared a word, not from Scripture, but from reflection on the year and a sense of what God was forming in this person, and the word was ‘resilience’….We don’t find the term ‘resilience’ in the New Testament, but we do find an important term that carries many of the same ideas, and which has a particular importance in the context of Christian discipleship. The term is ὑπομονή (hypomone)….It thus combines ideas of endurance, patience, and courage, and is translated in various way in ETs, including ‘endurance’, ‘steadfastness’, and (my favourite) ‘patient endurance’.”

Members of the audience react as U.S. President Trump delivers remarks at an Evangelicals for Trump Coalition Launch at the King Jesus International Ministry in Miami

“‘How Did We Get Here?’ A Call For An Evangelical Reckoning On Trump” – A friend shared with me this interview with Ed Stetzer of Wheaton College by NPR. “As fallout continues from the deadly siege on the U.S. Capitol, Ed Stetzer, head of the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College in Illinois, has a message for his fellow evangelicals: It’s time for a reckoning. Evangelicals, he says, should look at how their own behaviors and actions may have helped fuel the insurrection. White evangelicals overwhelmingly supported President Trump in the 2020 election.”

World Watch List 2021 “Open Doors’ 2021 watch list highlights impact of COVID-19 on religious persecution worldwide” – “The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed a number of existing problems: political divides, inequities, conspiracy theories. It also has exposed religious persecution in a number of countries, according to Open Doors. In India, the Christian watchdog organization said 80% of Christians who received pandemic aid from its partner organizations reported they’d been turned away from other food distribution points because of their faith. Others reported they’d been passed over for employment. Some had walked miles and hidden their religious affiliation in order just to get food, it said.”

“Explainer: The Supreme Court reinstates abortion pill restriction“ – Here’s an explainer from the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission on an abortion debate issue addressed by the Supreme Court this past week. “The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) granted the application for stay presented by the Trump Administration and reinstated requirements for women seeking medical abortion pills to first visit a doctor’s office or clinic. The decision was split 6-3, with the liberal justices in the dissent.”

A bas-relief depicting the sack of Jerusalem on the Arch of Titus in the Roman Forum, constructed in 82 CE

“What Happened at Masada?” – James Romm reviews two new books on Masada at The New York Review of Books: “The historian Steve Mason has called The Jewish War by Flavius Josephus ‘perhaps the most influential non-biblical text of Western history.’ This may seem a surprising choice. Written in Greek around 75 AD, the war it describes—the Judaean revolt against Roman rule that began in 66 and largely ended in 70 after huge losses, including the destruction of much of Jerusalem and the tearing down of its Temple—hardly seems today to be ‘the greatest not only of wars of our own times, but of all those we have ever heard of,’ as Josephus claims in his opening words. Yet the work continues to fascinate, especially now that thorny questions have emerged concerning its account of the war’s coda in the year 74: the mass murder-suicide of nearly a thousand Jews who resided on the fortified hill of Masada, just before it was captured by the Romans.”

Loretta Ross “What if Instead of Calling People Out, We Called Them In?” – I am convinced that we no longer know how to talk to one another. A friend shared this article with me and I found it thought-provoking within the current retributive cycle of our culture of vengeance and public shaming. “‘I am challenging the call-out culture,’ Professor Ross said from her home in Atlanta…’I think you can understand how calling out is toxic. It really does alienate people, and makes them fearful of speaking up.’ That perspective has made Professor Ross, 67, an unlikely figure in the culture wars. A radical Black feminist who has been doing human rights work for four decades, she was one of the signatories of a widely denounced letter in Harper’s Magazine, for which she herself was called out.”

Music: Max Richter, “On the Nature of Daylight,” from The Blue Notebooks.

The Weekend Wanderer: 5 September 2020

September 5, 2020September 4, 2020 Matt Erickson1 Comment

“Chadwick Boseman: Man of faith in real life, ‘Black Panther’ on screen” – This past week brought news of Chadwick Boseman’s passing after a four-year battle with colon cancer. Boseman, best known for his portrayal of the title character of Marvel’s Black Panther, also portrayed Jackie Robinson and Thurgood Marshall in feature films. “From the impression he left on a pastor of his youth to his own words at the 2018 commencement of Howard University, his alma mater, Boseman demonstrated a Christian life that included service, overcoming stereotypes and a desire to depict strong characters.”

Elon Musk Neuralink pig “Human Interests and Technological Systems” – What happens when human life serves technology more than technology serves human life? L. M. Sacasas critiques a recent display of apparent technological ingenuity by Elon Musk to raise significant questions about human life and technology. “Who is being plugged in to what? Or, to put it another way, who is the dominant partner, the computer or the brain? Are we plugging into a system that will serve our ends, or are we being better fitted to serve the interests of the technological system.”

Congregation at church praying

“1 in 5 churches facing permanent closure within 18 months due to COVID-19 shutdowns: Barna president” – Many churches have been detrimentally impacted by COVID-19, whether in the loss of church members, the inability to meet in person, or financial difficulties. In an interview with NPR, David Kinnaman, President of the Barna Group, predicts that 1 in 5 churches could face permanent closure in the next year and a half because of shutdowns related to COVID-19.

“Vocation in a Time of Precedented Uncertainty” – Here’s Noah Toly speaking about vocation in Comment: “Even if ‘unprecedented’ is overused, the novel coronavirus, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the containment and mitigation measures put in place to check the spread of the disease have been extraordinarily disruptive, destroying lives, upending livelihoods, and clouding the future with uncertainty. Among the many casualties of these current risks and future uncertainties is sure-footed conviction about our vocations. Why would we continue to invest time and attention in the same things that captured our imaginations before the pandemic? Where does our work fit into questions about the future of the global economy, the possibility of environmental integrity, the pace of scientific discovery, or the scale of global charitable giving?

iran “Researchers Find Christians in Iran Approaching 1 Million” – While not the first to report the news of the growth of Christianity in Iran, what is perhaps most interesting is that this latest research about the growth of christianity in Iran is from a non-faith-based perspective. With government statistics showing the traditional Armenian and Assyrian Christians in Iran number 117,700, ” a new survey of 50,000 Iranians—90 percent residing in Iran—by GAMAAN, a Netherlands-based research group, 1.5 percent identified as Christian.” This data extrapolates out to over 750,000 people in the total population of Iran.

Music: Max Richter, “Mercy,” from Voices.

[I do not necessarily agree with all the views expressed within the articles linked from this page, but I have read them myself in order to make me think more deeply.]

The Weekend Wanderer: 4 May 2019

May 4, 2019May 2, 2019 Matt EricksonLeave a comment

“The Weekend Wanderer” is a weekly 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.

“Modernity, Faith, and Martin Buber” – I don’t remember when it was, but as a young man preparing for ministry there was a season where I seemed to encounter references to certain books over and over again. One of those was Martin Buber’s I and Thou, which continues to sit on my shelf today ever since I first read it years ago. Buber is an interesting combination of innovative modernist philosopher and ardent Jewish thinker. Adam Kirsch offers a reappraisal of Buber and the ongoing significance of his thought in The New Yorker, which is well worth the read.

Synagogue Shooting in California – So much to say about this, but let me share two articles that I found thought-provoking. The first is Carl Trueman’s “Who’s to Blame When the Shooter Is One of Our Own?” in Christianity Today, which considers in depth what this means for us as Christians today. The second is David Brooks’ exploration of the pervasive culture of fear that grips us in his opinion piece, “An Era Defined by Fear.” I offered my own brief response, “Six Pastoral Reflections on the California Synagogue Shooting,” this past Wednesday.

“Augustine, Son of Her Tears” – A thoroughly North African developed version of St. Augustine’s life has come to the screen. You can watch the trailer here and read a review of the film by Christianity Today as well as a few other sources here and here. This looks fascinating, as someone interested particularly in the history of North African Christianity. I am inquiring about how to view the movie directly and look forward to finding out more information soon.

“The Rise of Conversational Churches” – Anyone familiar with C. Christopher Smith and his work with the slow church movement or The Englewood Review of Books, will enjoy reading this article based on his recent book, How the Body of Christ Talks: Recovering the Practice of Conversation in the Church. “In this age of social media, it is widely accepted that we don’t know how to talk together—and especially with those whose perspective differs greatly from our own….Amid these widespread failures of conversation, some churches across North America are devoting themselves to learning the practice of conversation, among their members and with their neighbors.”

“Les Murray, poet and ‘gentle titan of Australian letters’, dies aged 80” – Les Murray has been one of the finest poetic voices in English during our generation. I’ve enjoyed his works tremendously, and I know that I’m not alone in that. It was with sadness that I heard of Murray’s passing. “Les Murray, a distinguished figure of Australian letters, has died at the age of 80 on Monday after a long illness. One of Australia’s most successful and renowned contemporary poets, Murray’s career spanned more than 40 years. He published close to 30 books, including most recently a volume of collected works through Black Inc.” You might also enjoy David Mason’s essay, “Les Murray, Dissident Poet,” in First Things.

“God, Guns, and Country: The Evangelical Fight Over Firearms” – “The next morning, before leaving on their trip, Claiborne and Martin kneeled on the sidewalk in Kensington next to their mobile forge, among a pile of guns that they’d collected from neighbors or found in abandoned homes. Martin was sawing an AK-47 in half, and preparing to turn it into a mattock—an old-fashioned hoe with prongs on one side, which is used for breaking up clods of earth. He had grown up in a conservative evangelical church in Colorado. “It was very much God, guns, and country,’ he said. But in college he’d decided to return to his family’s Mennonite roots—a tradition that emphasizes nonviolence. With the help of a metalworker in Colorado, he had taught himself the rudiments of blacksmithing. Martin picked up the barrel of the AK-47 with a pair of long steel tongs and placed it into the forge until it softened and glowed a molten red.”

“Burkina Faso: Christians killed in attack on church” – “Gunmen have opened fire on a church in northern Burkina Faso, killing at least six people, officials say. The attackers reportedly arrived on seven motorbikes at the end of Sunday’s service and killed the pastor, two of his sons and three other worshippers. It is the first attack on a church since jihadist violence erupted in the West African country in 2016. Fighters affiliated to al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group as well as the local Ansarul Islam have been active.”

Music: Recomposed by Max Richter – Vivaldi – The Four Seasons, 1. Spring

[I do not necessarily agree with all the views expressed within the articles linked from this page, but I have read them myself in order to make me think more deeply.]

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Tag: Max Richter