Writing, Thinking, Living, Transforming

"The point is that we live such a wi-fi-enabled, out-sourced, off-site, backed-up life that we use our brains for little more than remembering where we store our passwords than what it is (stories, ideas, responses, reflections) they protect. Ours has evolved into such a non-oral tradition "tradition," that the thought of memorizing sonnets from a poem or narrative stories from the Bible for meaning and not information seems archaic and unnecessary. If we think we need it, we can find it; we don't need to learn it. And if we don't think we need to learn it, well, who cares?"~Craig Dunham

 "Biblical literacy programs need to do more than produce informed quoters. They need to produce transformed readers."~David Nienhuis

Craig Dunham is a teacher of New Testament and Ethics at one of the local Christian private schools. He has written three posts, so far, to his blog detailing the difficulties his students have in expressing themselves in writing and what he see as the causes of those difficulties. This first link would be hilarious if it weren't simultaneously troubling and sad on a number of levels. His other posts talk about biblical and theological illiteracy , illiteracy problems in general (and this is not limited to "Why Johnny can't read."/phonics/whole language questions), and  the influence an incorrect understanding and use of technology has on this developing problem. All factors combine to create young adults who have no foundation for thinking through an increasing complex world that they, and we,  must live in. More links and thoughts later.

Integration

Sometimes things I read, see, hear, etc. come at such a time and in such an order I am helped to see some part of life more clearly and sometimes it happens to be what is the foundation of life and living. MMV calls it synchronicity, serendipity, and synthesis. Whatever you call it, it's about living a life of integrity. What and how you think informs how you live and how you live informs what and how you think.

Via Scotty Smith:

"Christian maturing is a process in which the most fundamental layer of our identity becomes our self-understanding as a new creature in Christ, along with all our privileges in him." Tim Keller

Via Half-Pint House:
When I survey the wondrous cross
on which the Prince of Glory died;
my richest gain I count but loss,
and pour contempt on all my pride.

Forbid it, Lord, that I should boast,
save in the death of Christ, my God;
all the vain things that charm me most,
I sacrifice them to his blood.

See, from his head, his hands, his feet,
sorrow and love flow mingled down.
Did e'er such love and sorrow meet,
or thorns compose so rich a crown.

Were the whole realm of nature mine,
that were an offering far too small;
love so amazing, so divine,
demands my soul, my life, my all.

*HT-to MMV for the terms

An article on writing-Highly Recommended

For authors of various stripes, writing should be hard work, but that doesn't mean that is should be impossible to read says Gail Hornstein in an article on the often obtuse nature of academic writing. Complex subject matter does not mean the material should be incomprehensible to "ordinary" folk, if it is then the fault lies with the writer not the reader and encourages isolation:

When I was in graduate school at Clark University, I learned a key lesson about teaching from my adviser, Seymour Wapner. He called it the "Beethoven assumption." Si said that if you want to teach someone music, you don't just play scales to them. You play Beethoven, so they can grasp the complex essence of music; then you teach them to understand what they've heard. That has been my guiding assumption throughout 30 years of teaching, and I can tell you, it works.
Just as there's no need to sacrifice complexity in teaching core material, there's no need to do so in one's writing. As Graff rightly cautions: "Blanket suspicion of anything that might be called reductive—which often translates into a fear of making an assertion lest one be criticized—is probably far more to blame than opaque jargon for obfuscatory academic writing and teaching." I'd put that more sharply: Academics write so densely because they are afraid of being held accountable for their work.

You can read the rest here.

HT:Mental Multivitamin

Been there, still there

The study of logic

From Peter Leithart's blog
"Vico was not opposed to logic, but thought that its centrality in modern educational systems was damaging: "it throws into utter confusion, in our adolescents, those powers of the youthful mind each of which should be regulated by a systematic study of specific subject matters; as, for instance, memory by the study of languages, imagination by the reading of poets, historians, and orators, and wit by instruction in linear geometry. . . .

"The intensive training in logic which they receive at the start of their educational process prematurely leads our young men to criticism. There is an inversion of the natural course of the mind's development, by which natural course we are led first to learn, then to judge, and finally to reason; whereas, by the current practice, the student is taught the rules of exact judgment before those of right learning. The result is that we raise a youth incapable of expressing himself except in a devastatingly arid and jejune way; a generation of non-doers, who, disliking action, sit up in judgment about all matters."

Obedience to Faith

"Reading Oswald Chambers, yesterday, he writes, "Spiritual muddle is only made plain by obedience. Immediately we obey, we discern." Seems awfully close to Ransom's credo, "developing discernment, deepening discipleship." Sometimes I put it this way: moral commitment precedes epistemological insight. We always do live out of our hearts: we see and hear and feel out of our hearts." -Steven Garber

Buckley on Criticism

"One often hears it said that one should ignore criticism. I do not agree that it is always wise to ignore criticism of oneself and one’s endeavors, even when the criticism is ill-natured, exhibitionistic, and predictable. For even when that is the character of the criticism, there is sometimes something to be learned from it not only about oneself and one’s critics, but about the world we live in."

-William F. Buckley Jr., Aug. 1, 1956, National Review

The Role of Story and Redemptive Narrative History with regard to Propositional Truth.

I've been thinking through the place of story, experience, and propositional truth in regards to it's role in informing and shaping us as human beings. This lecture, http://covenantseminary.inmotionhosting.com/OT230_Lecture_02.mp3 , which I am listening to in preparation for a class I am taking this fall at Covenant Seminary on the OT Historical Books, the lecturer, Phil Long, explains that while stories are vital to illustrating propostional truth, the Biblical narratives have the added necessary value of establishing propositional truth.

Here's the text:
"By telling this story we could instruct someone in the truth that "Human strength is no match for God's strength, thus we need not fear human opposition" in a way that goes beyond simply stating the proposition. Thus one of the reasons stories are so important is because they provide vicarious experience. We can enter into them imaginatively and grasp the truth in a much more vital way than if we are simply given a list of propositions. If all you wanted to know was what the truths about God are, those could be condensed into propositions such as "God is love." But that is very different from experiencing God's love in your own life. People can give assent to the proposition without really understanding what it means. I am reminded of the man who on his wedding day said to his wife, "Helen, I love you. There, I have said it. Do not expect me to keep on repeating it. Believe me, I love you. But I will not be repeating it." This man has stated a proposition that he believes to be true. She may also believe it to be true, but she will be frustrated if over time she does not experience his love in some way that helps her understand what all that means. In fact, if there is no experience of that love then the man's statement means very little. Thus experience is important, and stories give us vicarious experience. Now, a made up story -- one that is not true -- can illustrate a truth, but it cannot establish a truth. You can illustrate something you know to be true by using a made up story, but you cannot prove something to be true simply by making up a story.
That is why these Old Testament stories are important in this second way: they recount redemptive history. History is the stage of God's activity and self-revelation. Christianity is an historical religion. This is distinct from other religions that might involve themselves more with a philosophy of life, a way of looking at things, a theory about the universe, or a code of ethics or behavior. All these things are a part of Christianity, but Christianity is distinct because it involves the in-breaking of God in history. That is the nature of the incarnation of Christ. It was necessary for God to break into history if He was to redeem real people with a real problem involving real sin. You may hear people say today that the historicity of the biblical text is inconsequential. That may be true of certain texts like a parable, which need not be historical because it is illustrating rather than establishing a truth. Now, when Jesus tells a parable, because of His authority as God incarnate, He is in a sense establishing a truth just by telling that parable, regardless of whether the parable is historical. He has the authority to pronounce a truth and illustrate it through that parable. But truths of redemption are not established simply by a book of fiction. People today do say that it is not really important whether we regard the accounts of Israel's past and God's actions on their behalf as historical. They say that these are books which they believed to be true, influenced their thinking, and helped them to develop a certain lifestyle. We need to be careful about that way of thinking because it betrays our poor understanding of the essence of the Christian faith. If Christianity were no more than a way of thinking or a code of behavior and a lifestyle, then the historicity of the biblical text would not be important. But because we are truly dead in sin we need a true revelation from God if we are to find any true redemption. In other words, history -- not philosophy, mysticism, speculation, or any realm of purely mental or spiritual enlightenment -- is the stage of God's activity and self-revelation. God has acted in history in a revelatory and redemptive fashion. This comes to its climax in Christ, but we really do not understand Christ until we understand the way in which He has been foreshadowed and prepared for in the story that has led up to Him. Also, God is an historical agent. The late G. B. Caird, in his book, The Language and Imagery of the Bible, stresses the importance of history for the writers of the New Testament. He writes this, talking about the writer of the Gospel of John: "According to John, there is no Christianity apart from the solid reality of the earthly life of Jesus recorded in the apostolic tradition. Eternal life remains an unsubstantial dream unless in one man's life it has become earthly reality. Without the Jesus of history we know neither the Christ of faith nor the God He came to reveal. From first to last the Bible lays great stress on the fact that God is uniquely active in human history."
You can read the rest here : http://www.covenantseminary.edu/worldwide/en/OT230/OT230_T_02.pdf
It's not as complicated as I tend to make it. Experience, story and propositional truth all have an active role in shaping all humans. We cannot do without any one of them. And in our teaching we must use them all. It would seem though that at each stage of life, that each will be given a different level of emphasis at any one time, due to both our ability to participate in that mode of learning and in our ability to learn.

This reminds me of something I read at John Frame and Vern Poythress's website:

"How is perspectivalism useful? There are some moments when I think it is a kind of deep structure of the universe and of Bible truth. Other times (most times) I think of it more modestly, as a pedagogical device. Certainly, as a pedagogical device, it gives students some hooks on which to hang bits of theological knowledge, or to change the metaphor, some string by which to tie things together. But I think that it is of even more practical significance.
For one thing, I think it resolves a lot of traditional theological arguments, such as whether redemptive history (the situation) is more important than the divine law (normative) or believing subjectivity. You need each to appreciate the others. That fact has implications for preaching, evangelism, and our personal appropriation of Scripture.
Second, it encourages us toward balance. Preaching that focuses all the time on law (normative) and not grace (situational) will be corrected by an understanding of the true relation between these. Same vice versa. People who emphasize the objective (normative and situational) while disparaging human experience and feelings (existential) can be corrected by a multi-perspectival understanding. And vice versa. Perspectivalism is a way of checking ourselves. If a pastor develops a ministry that focuses on norms and situations, he may need to supplement it with something that does justice to the existential perspective, and so on. If a congregation has a lot of prophetic gifts, but few kingly or priestly, perhaps it needs to seek leadership in the last two areas.
So I think that perspectivalism is an encouragement to the unity of the church. Sometimes our divisions of theology and practice are differences of perspective, of balance, rather than differences over the essentials of faith.18 So perspectivalism will help us better to appreciate one another, and to appreciate the diversity of God’s work among us."

In light of...

Just a note to let you know that Teaching Redemptively, the book I referenced below, has been read in light of the following books. I hope to post more on how all of the books I've listed so far have woven together so profoundly that I'm a bit at a loss for words, expect to say that how we live influences greatly our understanding. Put that together with yesterday's sermon and I need some time to think it through more fully.

Longing to Know


Proper Confidence: Faith, Doubt, and Certainty in Christian Discipleship


Creation Regained: Biblical Basics for a Reformational Worldview

Living as an Image Bearer

I'm reading the following books as I prepare our studies for the next year(s).

For the Children's Sake: Foundations of Education for Home and School (Child-Life Book)


When Children Love to Learn: A Practical Application of Charlotte Mason's Philosophy for Today

Far As The Curse Is Found: The Covenant Story Of Redemption