Sola Scriptura Follows

My noble comrade JK cited this piece from Peter Leithart yesterday. Notably, I think this is the only time I have referenced Leithart on my blog, but I thought a quote from the cited piece was worth sharing:

If Jesus is Lord of His church; if the text of Scripture is uniquely from God, such that God speaks in human language; if Christ's Spirit can make His human words intelligible to human beings; if human beings can, under the guidance of the Spirit, speak God's words accurately and intelligibly to the church - then sola scriptura follows. Denying sola scriptura entails denial of one or more of those conditionals: God can't in fact speak without distortion in human language; or Scripture is not uniquely God's Word in human words; or Jesus is a titular but not a living Lord of His church.

This sums up well the Reformational sense of what sola scriptura meant. The force is not on throwing out all other sources of knowledge about God, but rather in recognizing the unique role of Scripture as the final authority that overrules all else. As the Westminster Confession says in 1.6, “The whole counsel of God concerning all things necessary for His own glory, man's salvation, faith and life, is either expressly set down in Scripture, or by good and necessary consequence may be deduced from Scripture.”

One might ask if it is ironic that in discussing sola scriptura I turned to a tradition's confession (the Westminster Confession), but the very nature of the view of Scripture described above points to a clearly resounding “no.” The vows of the PCA make the distinction clear: the ordinand is to affirm believing that the Scriptures are “the only infallible rule of faith and practice,” but on the second count affirm only receiving and adopting the Confession “as containing the system of doctrine taught in the Holy Scriptures.” The Confession does not stand alone, but rather is entirely dependent for its authority on the Word of God.

That's sola scriptura.

WWDC 2012

MacRumors has a nice roundup of the best rumors going into Monday's Timnote:

Apple has already announced that it will be previewing iOS 6 and OS X Mountain Lion at the event, and with Apple also expected to introduce a number of new Macs and perhaps make some additional announcements, the schedule appears to be packed.

Given that Tim Cook has promised that Apple is going to “double down” on secrecy and yet it seems like there are more highly certain rumors this year than in the past, I'm going to wager that something big is lurking in the shadows as a “one more thing”-type of surprise. While launching an Apple TV app platform wouldn't fill that role, perhaps demonstrating the Apple TV as a full fledged gaming system with an innovative controller might do the trick…

A God with a Thousand Names

One interesting thing that happens based on the way Facebook handles “likes” of notable figures in more recent times is that these figures (or, rather, someone posting as these occasionally deceased figures) will post choice quotes that show up in one's news feed. The other day, the following quote popped in based on my “like” of Joseph Campbell:

You have the three great Western religions, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam - and because the three of them have different names for the same biblical god, they can't get on together. They are stuck with their metaphor and don't realize its reference. They haven't allowed the circle that surrounds them to open. It is a closed circle. Each group says, “We are the chosen group, and we have God.”

While the quote attracted many positive comments on Facebook, it is actually quite problematic. This claim may be true for some people,but the main points of division between the members of the Western religions are not the names used, but the contents of their beliefs. A simple demonstration of this comes from an increasing number of Christian missionaries who use the word “Allah” to refer to God when in a country where that word seems to be the most logical (linguistic) equivalent of elohim or theos in Scripture (i.e. “God” in English). The signifier (the word) stays the same, but the signifieds (the deities behind the word) look different in key ways.

Oversimplifying this matter and thinking in the way Campbell does is a common enough error to be sure, but one we ought not to make. Such a mistake ultimately demonstrates a failure to take these religions seriously, because each has distinct claims to the truth. Those deserve to be taken seriously and not immediately flattened.

Back in Action

Nice to see the Red Birds are acting like their usual selves again:

Four innings after his 12-pitch walk sparked the Cardinals go-ahead rally in the game, Robinson lofted a two-run homer on the second pitch of an at-bat in the seventh inning to put the game away. The Cardinals finished their 10-game, 11-day trek with a 14-2 romp against Houston at Minute Maid Park. It meant for the first time on the journey they had won a series and it was the difference between returning to Busch Stadium on a 3-7 plunge or a two-game winning streak.

14 is an even more serious number.

The Appeal of Swimming the Tiber

A friend of mine posted a link on Facebook to this piece yesterday. I think the article does a good job of explaining some of the reasons why people have left the Reformed world for Catholicism while also noting very clearly some of the core beliefs that are lost when one goes “swimming.” I think his points about what makes Catholicism attractive ought to urge us Presbyterians to think critically about what we do well as part of the body of Christ and what we could improve on. In some cases, we could simply do a better job and deal directly with those yearnings people have that we are currently inadequately caring for. In other cases, the best course of action is simply teaching why we don't do or believe certain things (and, as an important companion, why we do and believe other things).

Call it my historical bias, but I also think we need to spend more time teaching people within the Church about church history. The things that people of faith have faced before are far more relevant than many of us are prone to think. In relation to the topic of the blog post I linked to above, I think that plays out in two very clear ways. First, church history helps us to understand why the Reformation happened and see how it has historical continuity with the church as a whole. Second, thoughtful study of church history helps us to think through how we apply tradition within the church today.

Leaked MacBook Pro Details?

Quite a few sites, including MacRumors, have been reporting about an allegedly leaked label from the next 13” MacBook Pro. The specs seem plausible, though I'm dubious as to whether Apple will give in and offer USB 3.0 when doing so might hurt Thunderbolt's chances of adoption.

My dubiousness feels like it receives some confirmation via another detail: the box refers to Mac OS X being pre-installed. As of OS X Lion, Apple dropped “Mac” from almost all references to “Mac OS X,” yet this label follows the old style. I suspect this was a slip by whomever created the label.

The X-37B

The Daily Mail has an interesting — albeit, overly conspiratorial, perhaps — little article on the X-37B space plane that is preparing to land after orbiting for about a year.

Last May, amateur astronomers were able to detect the orbital pattern of the first X-37B which included flyovers of North Korea, Iraq, Iran, Pakistan and Afghanistan, heightening the suspicion that the vehicle was being used for surveillance.

Is it really being used for surveillance, I wonder? If so, what could it possibly do that existing satellites could not do?

ownCloud

This is an interesting, Free Software combination of what appears to be a upstart Dropbox competitor and an iCloud calendar and contacts syncing competitor. But, unlike those services, this one will run on your own server or hosting account. It looks like it could have the potential to be an intriguing lightweight groupware option.

Dowd on the President

I am not, by any means, a huge fan of Maureen Dowd, but her column in this Sunday's New York Times is an interesting consideration of the current presidential landscape.

Once glowing, his press is now burning. “To a very real degree, 2008's candidate of hope stands poised to become 2012's candidate of fear,” John Heilemann wrote in New York magazine, noting that because Obama feels he can't run on his record, his campaign will resort to nuking Romney.

I'm looking forward to seeing what campaign messages come out over the summer months.

The Problem with Trade Shows

Scott Stein writes for CNet:

Apple, the 800-pound gorilla of the industry, never has an official presence at shows like CTIA (mobile), CES (consumer electronics), and Computex (PCs). But if you read between the lines of the press conferences and press releases, every company at those shows is implicitly talking about — and reacting to — the latest Apple gadgets, new or anticipated.

And now, as we approach the annual E3 trade show, the focus naturally turns to Apple's role in the video game industry.

Naturally.