Calvin and the Mystery of the Eucharist
In his Commentary on 1 Corinthians, while commenting on 11.24, Calvin pushes back against all those who would seek to explain the inner workings of the Lord's Supper:
“In the meantime, however, drive away gross imaginations, which would keep thee from looking beyond the bread. […]” These few things will satisfy those that are sound and modest. As for the curious, I would have them look somewhere else for the means of satisfying their appetite.
Though Calvin does briefly discuss his own view of the Supper in this work, clearly he puts a great deal of emphasis on the need not to explain too much.
Sanitizing Cell Phones
A cell phone, rather obviously, should be one of the germiest things we use. Between times we pull out our phones, we touch door handles, shake hands and so on. Now some inventive folks are trying to create a special UV sanitizer just for cell phones. The nifty thing is that this device avoids making UV sanitation an extra step by combining cleaning and charging into one process. Intriguing.
From the site:
Wired put it best when they said, “The irradiated warmth of a cellphone's interior is a vile, germ-infested bath loaded with more pathogens than any surface in your home.” The difference from your cell phone and everything else around you is that your cell phones is a safe-haven for bacteria. Their warmth allows bacteria to continue to live and to continue to reproduce!
The inventors have set their Kickstarter fundraising goal at $18,000 for production to begin.
Paraclesis and the Authority of Scripture
From Erasmus's “Paraclesis,” concerning the authority of Scripture:
It is no school of theologians who has attested to this Author for us but the Heavenly Father Himself through the testimony of the divine voice…
Note that Erasmus does not place the authority he gives to Scripture in the church structure, but in God's attestation. This is huge, even if Erasmus ultimately did not follow the Reformers.
iHungry Hippos
Another excellent April Fool's Day joke. I just love the idea of capacitive touch screen compatible hippos. I wonder how long a Gorilla Glass screen could hold up with this?
Quest Mode
While you still can, you should visit Google Maps and try the “Quest” mode. It shows to how great an extent the company is willing to go to for a good April Fools Joke.
Late Night Haiku XLI
CXV. Silence prowls around
Bushes below my window.
Claws scratch quietly.
CXVII. Oh, cruel time! Tick, tock.
Time erodes when it could build —
A hole, but not whole.
CXVIII. Old friend, so much time
Has passed through the rugged chasm.
Ever widening.
Lenovo Shows Apple How It's Done
People often get upset at Apple for suing companies that borrow design ideas from the Mac maker. That's why it is refreshing to see Lenovo has new laptops headed our way that are completely innovative in their appearance. No one would ever confuse this for a MacBook Pro. Note, for example, the location of the power button.
Mr. Bezos Goes Fishing
Alicia Chang reports for the AP:
An undersea expedition spearheaded by Bezos used sonar to find what he said were the F-1 engines located 14,000 feet deep. In an online announcement Wednesday, the Amazon.com CEO and founder said he is drawing up plans to recover the sunken engines, part of the mighty Saturn V rocket that launched Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins on their moon mission.
Intriguing.
Hermeneutics and Colossians 3.22
Jeff Kloha, over at Concordia Theology, offers a very good analysis of the dilemma of reading a passage like Colossians 3.22 in the modern world:
How do we read this in a way that is consistent with the text's own goals and agendas, and not our own goals and agendas? And, if we insist on our own goals and agendas, as quite clearly the people who paid for this billboard will, should we be allowed to read the Bible at all? For ironically, when we read a passage like this we are not free to read it and decide what it means. We are, perhaps ironically, in fact “slaves” who have no choice as to how we read it. Our minds have been made up for us even before we see it. We are not autonomous, rational creatures. Who will rescue us from this body of death?
One of the things a person realizes very quickly when one studies interpretive theory is just how difficult it is for us to do proper interpretation (or even figure out what proper interpretation is). We can work through the “hermeneutical spiral” and build strong support for interpretations of a text, but the process is one that calls for humility and an earnest desire to understand the text instead of merely what we want the text to say.
