Just Call me a Barthist

According to this unusually thoughtful, well-done theology survey, I am placed in the same school of thought as Karl Barth. Who would have thunk? Yeah, I thought so, and you probably did too. Notice it is virtually a dead heat between Neo-Orthodoxy (Lewis, Barth) and Reformed Evangelicalism (Calvin, Edwards), which of course fits with being Barthian. I'm not sure how Wesleyanism came in third when I gave good, solid Calvinist answers to a number of questions, but I don't really mind that. Notice that Fundamentalism scores much lower, as do the various forms of liberalism.

It is interesting to find myself being labeled neo-orthodox in a poll today, since I was just talking about my affinity with the neo-orthodox thinkers in my application for SCF, which I almost finished last night.

Not surprisingly, Catholicism is also low on my profile, which I point out as probably correct, since I answered in the negative on the authority of the pope, the authority of the ecumenical councils, the centrality of Mary and the key of communion to worship (but, let my Catholic friends rest assured, I'm fairly certain that it was only those four questions that determined my Catholicity and therefore one should not read so much into the fact that my liberal and Catholic scores came out the same). Had it been listed, I might have come out with a fairly good Eastern Orthodox score, given that my answers pointed to Christocentrism and I did not answer completely iconoclastically.

Thanks go to Christopher

For the Rain It Rainth Everyday

A friend of mine from out of town commented back in May that St. Louis does not have refreshing afternoon storms to cool down the air after a hot day. Actually, sometimes we do have them, but this spring was rather dry. Now, we are catching up, and in a big way. There is a storm with what sounds like straight line winds of up to 80 MPH (129 KPH) heading our way as I write. I might be gone for awhile if the power is taken out. That reminded me of a song from a play.

He that has and a little tiny wit—
With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,—
Must make content with his fortunes fit,
For the rain it raineth every day.

Where is this quote from? That is an asisaid Challenge Question worth 10 points.

When that I was and a little tiny boy,
With hey, ho, the wind and the rain,
A foolish thing was but a toy,
For the rain it raineth every day.

But when I came to man's estate,
With hey, ho, &c.
'Gainst knaves and thieves men shut their gate,
For the rain, &c.

But when I came, alas! to wive,
With hey, ho, &c.
By swaggering could I never thrive,
For the rain, &c.

But when I came unto my beds,
With hey, ho, &c.
With toss-pots still had drunken heads,
For the rain, &c.

What is different about this part of the song? That is a challenge question worth 20 points.

A Writing Itch

I have the urge to write two non-fiction books. Previously, I've wanted to write one, but never knew what I wanted to write on. I know what I'd like to say in them now, and given the time, I think I could probably produce one of them within the next year. The problem is that I'm not good at sticking to one project. I have a lot of irons in the fire, and I really don't want to give any of them up… but, if I don't, I won't ever get any of them done.

Another problem I have is credentials. The only field I have any background at all in is information technologies, and neither of the books I'd like to write have anything to do with computers. Would people read a book from a nobody with no particular expertise? I'm not sure. I may try to see if I can focus enough to write what I want to write and then worry about that later. I can always hang onto the manuscript until such time as I do have the right background or the a willing audience.

One thought that has passed through my head is to fictionalize my non-fiction. If I make my point through fiction, perhaps it would matter less if I was an “expert.” On the other hand, I don't want to water down what needs to be said.

The one book also has to do with what I cannot yet share. How I'd like to share my thoughts, but some things — most things, really — are still in motion and I simply cannot for that reason. Perhaps this is good. The things are getting so bottled up in me that maybe that will force me to put it into a more organized form that can be published. I can hardly stand it. In point of fact, I've already generated the better part of 100 double spaced pages of notes on the one subject. Now to organize it…

Wild Rereading

I started reading Wild at Heart, by John Eldredge, a few years back; some things happened, and I put the book down for about six months after the first 50 or so pages. I then picked it back up on a week that turned out to be immensely wild and therefore only got 20 more pages read before I moved on to something else. Given that I couldn't remember what the first 70 pages said, I started over the other day, after finishing Philip Yancey's Rumors of Another World (an excellent book, by all counts, I would say).

I'm not sure what to make of Eldredge's book. I like parts of his thesis and he is a pretty decent writer (though not a Yancey caliber one), but too much of it centers on our problems of the present being the fault of someone else. Particularly, he talks about a man's need to get The Answer (“do I have what it takes?”), and our fathers' general failure — actively or passively — to answer that, giving us The Wound. The Wound, he says, is then attempted to be cured through various means such as becoming a type-A personality, becoming a Nice Guy or seeking out a woman to validate where the father failed to.

The problem, I think, with Eldredge's idea is two fold. First, he makes the Wound and its symptoms/cover-ups so broad that every man turns out to have it. Second, I'm uncomfortable with how he links so many people's major problems all to their fathers. No doubt neuroses do come of our relationships with others, especially parents and family, but one must be careful to avoid making one cause too broad of answer. Ultimately, all of the things he discusses come from our fallen nature; the inevitable problems between a child and parent are simply part of that larger issue.

Still, I'm not done with the book, so we'll see how he wraps things up in the back 100 pages.

Tillich on Asking Questions

This month's quote says something I think we need to be reminded of, as Christians. Too often we've come to associate faith with placidly accepting the way things are, according to authorities (be it pastors, leaders or even a cursory examination of the Scriptures) and fail to really get to the meat of things. If we accept that what God says is true and what is in the Bible is what God has to say, then we should question what we read to really understand it.

“Being religious means asking passionately the question of the meaning of our existence and being willing to receive answers, even if the answers hurt.”

If I passionately seek answers, not every answer is going to come back the way I want it to. Maybe some will shake my faith. Maybe some will strengthen my faith while going against what I want. Regardless of my preconceived notions, it is important to constantly ask the existential questions of life and be ready for the answers. It is only by not taking things for granted that I can finally come to know more about God.

PhotoQuest #2: Better Late than Never

This is my May entry in Flip's Photo Quest meme. I was a very bad boy — this should have been up by mid-May at the worst, but here we are approaching mid-June and I am just finally getting it up. I shall try to do much better with the June PQ.

1. A tool, more specifically a screw driver. As someone who is not mechanical, my main use for tools is connected to my work with computers. That means this is the most indispensable tool in my arsenal, other than my Leatherman multi-purpose keychain knife/screwdriver/plyers, etc. thingamabob (but Flip prohibited taking pictures of Swiss Army knifes for this particular assignment).

2. There is no number two photo because I do not wear a spring jacket for “when the temperature is between 10 and 18 degrees Celsius (50-64 in Fahrenheit, I think)”. I have a blue, thinner jacket I wear for when temperatures are in the mid-to-low 40's and below, but nothing in Flip's range. In fact, my general rule of thumb is that the shorts come out when temperatures hit 52 degrees Fahrenheit (11.1 C).

3. This is the container where recyclables are placed when I am a good, ecologically concerned citizen (which, I'm afraid, isn't as often as it should be). Welcome to the St. Peter's Municipal Blue Bag program. Stick your goods in the bag and throw it in your municipally assigned Big Green Beast trash can. Some poor guy at Recycle City (yes, they call it that) gets to dig through all of the trash and pull out the Blue Bags. Ick!

4. That is the neighbor's swing set, the closest playground equipment from my present, secret, undisclosed location.

5. Two plastic grocery bags, one from Shop 'n Save, a local division of grocery behemoth SuperValu, and the other is from — you guessed it! — Target.

So Much

There are so many things I want to write about here that I just cannot yet. It is driving me crazy. Several things I've spent much of the last few weeks dealing with, for example. That's where a private, password protected blog might be good, but I don't think that is for me (at least, by and large).

On the other hand, you can see one thing I am up to. A new design for my church's site. Take a look and let me know what you think. The powers that be want the animation to be smaller in width so that there can be a side column… do you like that idea? Thanks for your input.

Update: In reply to Mark, note that this is not the live site, just a mockup of a new front page.

Macs Go Intel

Sure, it has been rumored for years. Sure, any technology observer even slightly familiar with Apple knew that Mac OS X had been run in house on Intel. But, Apple parting ways with the processor it has spent all of these years promoting? If Apple was a few millennia older, without doubt this would have been prophesied as a sign of the apocalypse. The real apocalypse may not be here yet, but the computing world has just seen one of the biggest earthshaking announcements in years. Now Apple faces one of the hardest projects ever put forward for a computer company in its position: keeping backward compatibility. Read my first thoughts on Universal Binaries and Rosetta at OfB.biz.

Tired

I'm not sure why, but all of a sudden I am exhausted. I was going to post one or two good posts tonight, but it ain't happening. I promise normal blogging will resume soon.

Meet the Apple Nessie PC

Having read the News.com story about Apple’s supposed impending switch to x86, let me propose an excellent code name for this forthcoming system: “Nessie.” Like Nessie’s namesake Loch Ness Monster, the rumor of Mac OS on x86 rings of the stuff of tabloids, not something that people take seriously. Of course, that leaves us to ask what we are to make of it when one of the most respectable online computer news sources, News.com, reports as virtual fact that Apple will be switching to Intel, and the story apparently seems credible enough to get Reuters to pick it up. Read my full thoughts at OfB.biz.