'Twas the Night before Superbowl Sunday

Good sportsmen now rejoice

With heart and soul and voice!

Give ye heed to what we say

News! News!

Superbowl is on today!

Busch and Block before it bow;

Apple, Coke--come see them now--

Commercials deck this golden cow.

Superbowl today!

Superbowl today!

Here we come a-chugging

Before the TV Screen!

Here we come a-swigging--

our Superbowl routine.

Couch and cash come to you

And to you an ice cold Bud too,

And Noll bless you, and send you

A winning team this year,

And Noll send you a winning team this year.

The High Holy Days are about to reach their climax. Tonight is Superbowl Eve, and tomorrow is Superbowl Sunday. Years ago, Joseph L. Price nailed it in this article for The Christian Century. "The Super Bowl as a Religious Festival."

The Superbowl is the ultimate holiday of Civic Religion. It is the one occasion that unites people of all ages, incomes, persuasions. However, it seems to be particularly sacred to males:

According to a new Coors Light survey of more than 2,500 adult male football fans, preparing for Super Bowl Sunday is one of the most important priorities of the year. Survey results show that a large percentage (44 percent) of men put more time and energy into making Super Bowl plans than making Valentine's Day plans. The survey also shows that more than 30 percent of survey respondents would rather see their favorite team win the Super Bowl than win a date with a supermodel, win a year's supply of beer or win their fantasy football league for three years in a row. link

Savvy evangelicals have co-opted it for their own ends, by hosting Superbowl parties. Yahoo will even tell you how to do it. Of course, the NFL magisterium is wary of such subversions and will flex its muscle to maintain orthodoxy. As Bruce Forbes and David Mahan point out, it is ironic that many evangelicals--"heirs of those who stripped bare their churches"--have eschewed visual representation in their sanctuaries, while simultaneously they have become "the most sophisticated practitioners of electronic technology." Now those electronic images have been granted "a power greater than that of medieval liturgical icons."

Among the many rituals associated with the day is the Drinking of the Beer:

The survey also revealed that the winner of the game isn't the only thing on men's minds - beer is also a top priority on Super Bowl Sunday. While roughly 35 percent of those surveyed said their male friends are the ideal Super Bowl companions, 24 percent said all they need is an ice cold beer, preferably at a temperature as cold as the Rocky Mountains (45 percent). link

One of the rituals of Superbowl Sunday that Price fails to explore is the Viewing of the Commercials. Of course, in keeping with the spirit of the Day, certain commercials are taboo. Others that reinforce the values of the Game are welcomed. They involve immense sacrifice on the part of the advertisers, and the more they amuse us the greater their power.


Yes, for some of us these are sacred days; but for others of us, they mark the Abomination of Desolation. Guess which group I fall into?

The Four-Word Film Review

It's true! Movie reviews in four words or less. Check them out here. For example:

Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999)

"Jar-jar Stinks. Star Bore."
"Poor little orphan Ani."
"The Force becomes farce."

The Curious Case Of Benjamin Button (2008)

"Life versa."
"Pitt's salad days, wilted."
"Daisy pushes Benjamin's buttons."
"Meet Joe Back(wards)."

Gone With The Wind (1939)

"Better Rhett than debt."

"Scarlett has midwife crisis."

"Rhett gets Scarlett fever."

"All's unfair. Love. War."

"Scarlett's Butler did it."

"The Scarlett Rhetter."

"It's curtains for Scarlett."

"House loses its Gable."

Caviar and Concepts: A Teaching Moment for the Church?

detail, Old Woman Examining a coin by a Lantern, by Gerrit van Honthorst,(1592-1556)

"Caviar Days are over" for the World Economic Forum at Davos, according to this article. The Masters of the Universe are making do with ham and cheese and white wine, instead of lobster, caviar and Dom Perignon. And Jean-Pierre Lehmann, professor at the IMD business school, is resorting to religious language to describe the situation:

"Citigroup used to throw big parties. So did Goldman Sachs and the others. But the mood this year is very different." Davos, he noted, was founded on the "dogma of business leadership" which in recent months has been choking on fallout from the credit crisis fallout. "There was always a certain element of evangelism capitalism during previous years' Davos. You don't get fundamental debate on the system," he said.

Lehman is on the lookout for "acts of contrition" this year, as bankers and other captains of industries are under the spotlight for their role in the financial crisis.

Is the City of God ready to enter the collapsing City of Man? Certainly the latter is beginning to appropriate its language; and that offers us a huge opportunity. Are we able to recognize it, and use it as a "teaching moment?" Are there "bilingual" Christians prepared to enter the halls of finance, listen to the conversations happening there, and explain the original, authentic meanings of these terms? Missionaries can come in all kinds of dress, and not only to people who live in poverty!

The greatest tragedy would be if such words lost their tethering in the Christian narrative, were absorbed into the commerce of the Market, and were thus stripped of their theological power. May God raise up men and women who will take advantage of the present financial crisis to witness to the Living Word.

ADDENDUM, 1/29/09 On yesterday's Marketplace, I heard the following segment, where Scott Jagow asked about the mood at Davos. Diane Brady replied:

Diane Brady: I think the general mood is a real sense of confusion. There's a sense that there's going to be unprecedented government intervention in the next year, and so there's more CEOs and chairpersons than ever in the history of Davos. There's also more world leaders here, so I think you're dealing with people whose industries have collapsed in a way that they've never seen, and they're trying to figure out what will get the world out of this, nevermind their own companies.

Confusion...loss of control...collapse...just the sort of tinder the Holy Spirit is able to use.

Contradictions are always signs of error

In my philosophy classes, my students learn that while paradox is part and parcel of Christian thought, contradiction is not. This blog is based on the idea that contradictions are signs of error, and that both meaningful speech and action are impossible if contradictions are permitted.

Scot McKnight has written a fine piece for his Beliefnet blog urging President Obama to avoid a commiting a nasty contradiction. "Abortion is also torture," he reminds us.

Obama and Abortion
Friday January 23, 2009
Categories: Public Issues

Barack Obama, as far as I'm concerned, is not off to a good start when it comes to "change" and ending the "politics as usual" he claimed in his campaign. First, on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade he has announced what amounts a contradiction: reduce abortions by supporting and funding abortions. This makes no sense to me. What really makes it difficult morally is that such support is offered on the day he was also announcing -- rightly -- to close down GTMO and speak against the evils of torture. Abortion is also torture. Women have the right to choose what to do with their own bodies, but once there's a pregnancy, that woman is now carrying someone else's body -- that body is no longer simply her own. Support of abortion and opposition to torture is a moral contradiction, and I call on the Obama Administration to re-think their position of their stance on abortion.

Second, our President has postponed announcing that he will support the Mexico City Policy decision. Reagan withdrew support for international clinics that supported abortion, Clinton reinstated support, G.W. Bush withdrew the support, and it appears Obama will reinstate support again. We expected to hear his reinstatement yesterday, but it didn't happen. Everything I hear is that it will happen. This, my friends, is politics as usual. Here's what change could mean: there are plenty of clinics to support that don't do abortions; support those. To choose to reinstate support is to make a choice to support clinics that specifically provide abortions. There is here neither change nor is there a politics that is not usual.

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- President Barack Obama used the occasion of the thirty-sixth anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision to issue a contradictory statement. The new president called for reducing abortions but honored the radical decision that ushered in an era of 50 million abortions and virtually no limits.

Obama praised the Supreme Court for issuing what has been one of the most condemned rulings in its history.

"[T]his decision not only protects women's health and reproductive freedom, but stands for a broader principle: That government should not intrude on our most private family matters," Obama said in a statement.

And he reaffirmed his official position supporting abortion.

"I remain committed to protecting a woman's right to choose," he said.

The president also issued a call for an expansion of access to birth control and contraception, even though studies and actual abortion data have shown they do nothing to reduce the numbers of abortions.

"While this is a sensitive and often divisive issue, no matter what our views, we are united in our determination to prevent unintended pregnancies, reduce the need for abortion, and support women and families in the choices they make," he said. "To accomplish these goals, we must work to find common ground to expand access to affordable contraception, accurate health information, and preventative services."


Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- In a move to downplay his pro-abortion agenda, President Barack Obama has decided to wait a little longer to reverse a Bush policy preventing taxpayer funding of abortions overseas. The Mexico City Policy prevents sending public funds to groups that perform or promote abortions in other countries.
The new president could either issue an order tomorrow or in the near future to reverse the policy or allow Congress to do it.

Obama was expected to overturn the pro-life policy on his first or second full days in office and to possibly do so today, on the anniversary of the Roe v. Wade decision.

However, a CBN News report indicates Obama will not overturn the policy on a day that pro-life advocates mourn the Supreme Court allowing virtually unlimited abortions.

While Obama is still expected to fund foreign abortions at some point, CBN News indicates Obama is attempting to camouflage his pro-abortion agenda by issuing a statement calling for efforts to reduce abortions.

"It is unclear whether Obama intends to reverse the Mexico City Policy at some point in the future but this reliable source tells me that this move signals that Obama will stress the need for reducing abortions in this country rather than focus on the divisive tit for tat policy reversals of the past," writes David Brody a senior correspondent for the network.

The move may infuriate pro-abortion groups, which campaigned relentlessly for Obama and expected him to immediately reverse the policy upon taking over the White House.

At the same time, Obama could approach overturning the Mexico City Policy in the same manner as he is apparently approaching reversing Bush's limits on funding embryonic stem cell research.

Obama appears to want Congress to do the heavy lifting to pass legislation reversing the protections and he can both get credit for signing the bill and deflect criticism by not becoming the sole decision-maker changing the rules.

Such a move would also make it much tougher for pro-life advocates to undo the decision -- and Obama could also rely on Congress to reverse the Mexico City Policy.

In September, 2007, Sen. Barbara Boxer introduced an amendment to a spending bill that would have reversed the policy and the Senate approved it by a 53-41 percentage point margin.

The move didn't take effect only because President Bush threatened to veto any spending bill that removed the Mexico City Policy -- something Obama would unlikely do.

Let us pray that reason prevails. Meanwhile I rest in this paradox: while hopeful, I'm not optimistic that it will.

Oregon Unemployment Rate

According to OPB, the jobless rate here climbed to nine percent in December, the highest it’s been since 1985. We've been losing about 9,000 jobs every month since last August. Many, but not all, have been linked to the timber industry.

The Portland Business Journal reports that OHSU is also feeling the pain:

Oregon Health & Science University will eliminate between 500 and 1000 positions in the next four to six months as it wrestles with a $30 million and $35 million gap in funding.OHSU President Joe Robertson released a detailed financial plan to cut up to 8 percent of the institution’s 12,400 employees on Thursday.

The budget crisis is driven by the economic downturn and 80 percent fewer new patients than expected. OHSU Hospital anticipated 5 percent growth in the current year, but so far patient volumes have increased by just 1 percent.
OHSU further attributed its financial crisis to a rise in growing demand for uncompensated care, lower state funding and an economic climate in which research grants have fallen. It's also had significant investment losses.

The university ended 2008 with $345 million in its endowment, down 25.5 percent from its $461.4 million balance at the end of 2007. OHSU noted it outperformed the S&P 500, which dropped 37 percent over the same period.

OHSU previously froze hiring and salaries, reduced pension plan contributions, postponed capital plans and began reducing staff. Senior executives, including Robertson, took pay cuts and are forgoing incentive pay.

It's getting grim here, folks.

Hurley's Mom: Confession of Faith?

I'm intrigued by Hurley's mom. She's certainly no saint, but she has raised Hurley not to lie. This has caused him much grief, but will it be the key to his redemption? With all the crucifixes that surround her, is the show wanting us to get the message that she is a woman of faith?

Last night on Lost, Hurley confesses to her that the Oceanic Six all agreed to lie about the other survivors. He tells her the whole story. She says, "I believe you. I don't understand you, but I believe you." Is this a picture of Mark 9:24?

Think of all the other positions she could have taken. She could have said,

1) I believe so I can understand.
2) I don't believe, so I don't understand.
3) I believe so I don't need to understand.
4) I don't need to believe because I understand.

Where would you say you are?

Obama's Metaphysics Lesson, 2

A visual representation of the most used words in Barack Obama's inauguration speech Photo: Wordle.net

Today's inaugural speech builds upon and completes Obama's victory speech at Grant Park. Once more I am struck by the way Obama understands the need for metaphysical balance, and the way he is able to call for our participation in something larger, while still maintaining the integrity of each person. It's as if he's read The Person and the Common Good and applied Maritain's thought to our current situation:

"[the]human person is engaged in its entirety as part of political society, but not by reason of everything that is in it and everything that belongs to it. By reason of other things which are in the person, it is also in its entirety above political society. For in the person there are some things- and they are the most important and sacred ones- which transcend political society and draw man in his entirety above political society- the very same whole man who, by reason of another category of things, is part of political society." (p. 72-73)

The LA Times had these observations about Obama's inaugural address:

Other writers praised the absence of the first person singular. "The word that stood out the most for me," said author Marisa Silver, "was the word 'we.' Taking the 'I' out of the equation makes us keenly aware of the power and responsibility that we, each of us, have to make differences."

USC professor Leo Braudy was moved to think about the difference between general forces in history and the force of the individual, particularly someone who, like Obama, embodies past polarities. "This is how history moves," he said. "It's all well and good to talk about the rise of liberalism or the fall of communism, but really it's the individual who carries these forces within him and is able to move history forward."

Has nominalism been weighed, and has it been found wanting? We can only hope so, for the future of this nation, and for each of our own sakes.

Big Box 2: Definitions

One final detail remains before we can address Donn's post. How shall we understand "big box?" Using MacIntyre's template, I take this term to be able to refer to different things:

1) A Modern understanding: "Big Box" refers to the collection of discrete, independently existing individuals who happen to be engaged in a similar set of beliefs and/or practices, at generally the same time and place. However, their unity is not "authentic," only assumed or imposed. That is, they do not participate in some universal greater than themselves, so that they are a particular instance of that universal, but instead, having rejected the idea of universals they constitute themselves as a "unity."

This is why they need to "brand" and "market" themselves: branding and marketing are "external" ways of establishing identity, unity, and "relationship." (For Modern churches, they are perhaps the only ways.) Modern "big box" churches are "plants" in the sense of factories. They offer a product, and if one can assemble the necessary "parts" and master the necessary techniques, more of the product can be delivered.

Thus, the Modern "big box" church is located at a specific space-time coordinate composed of a certain quantity of members located at that coordinate, as opposed to the postmodern "no-box" church, which resists definition even in terms of specific space-time coordinates. In general, postmoderns react strongly against quantification, calculation and prediction--and so reject the "programs" approach of modern Big Box churches, while still maintaining the modernist metaphysical commitment to discrete individuals

2) A premodern understanding of "big box" might refer to the particular instance of the universal. That is, the particular thing participates in or images the greater thing, so that its existence is dependent upon the reality of the universal. It does not constitute itself as a collection of individuals, but rather receives its existence as a result of its relationship to the universal, and is one of many possibile instances of the universal thing. Its definition is therefore impossible apart from the universal.

The premodern church is a "box" insofar as it incarnates the universal: it is a concrete, physical instance of the Body of Christ. It has a nature which is given to us to understand, enjoy and instantiate. It may be big or small, but it has a specific location in time and space, and most importantly, it has a history. From a postmodern perspective, boxes are seen as confining: they limit the individual's freedom. Hence, the more the premodern church recognizes a history and honors a tradition, the bigger the box it appears to be.

Big Box 1: Why is it dying?

In "The Death of the Big Box," Donn Johnson notes how increasing social decentralization is fragmenting education, and wonders what the effect this will have on the Faith:

Is the same process at work in spiritual formation? Is there a decline in the "big box" method of spiritual formation? The big box of a church building at a set time and place with assigned teachers and preachers? Are all the alternative offerings basically good things? Or do they risk creating truncated Christians who gravitate to places and pastor that validate their opinions and make them feel good? The cultural dominance of the church in the culture is long-dead, and that's probably a pretty good thing because we in the clergy and institutional denominations have not done that good of a job stewarding our affluence. George Barna's recent post illustrates how American Christians are living a far more ala carte style of theology and belief than ever before. Where churches and denominations used to cohesively define and clarify belief, we have become a nation of belief-grazers who assemble a mash-mash of beliefs and preferences that are not always coherent or consistent, and we know that and don't really care.

Before we consider the practical implications of this phenomenon, we should consider its causes. What roads lies before us depends on what road we are on, and what road we are on depends on what road we have taken. Elsewhere, I have written about the theoretical underpinnings of decentralization/fragmentation. See

Refusing to let the Culture Dictate our Lives",

"Institution or Body?",

"Square Circles and Nominalist Christians",

"Is Denominational Leadership no longer Important?",

"Understanding Nominalism Part I,

"Understanding Nominalism 2,

"Barna on Designer Faith" and

Understanding Nominalism 3.

Others have written with far more depth and eloquence: for example, S. Joel Garver, "Nominalism and the 'Modern.'" Of course the great-grandaddy of them all is Alasdair MacIntyre. If you haven't read his classic description of decay and bricolage in After Virtue, here it is:

Imagine that the natural sciences were to suffer the effects of a catastrophe. A series of environmental disasters are blamed by the general public on the scientists. Widespread riots occur, laboratories are burnt down, physicists are lynched, books and instruments are destroyed. Finally, a Know-Knothing political movement takes power and successfully abolishes science teaching in schools and universities, imprisoning and executing the remaining scientists. Later still there is a reaction against this destructive movement and enlightened people seek to revive science, although they have largely forgotten what it was. But all they possess are fragments; a knowledge of experiments detached from any knowledge of the theoretical context which gave them significance; parts of theories unrelated either to the other bits and pieces of theory which they possess or to experiement; instruments whose use has been forgotten; half-chapters from books; single pages from articles, not always fully legible because torn and carred. None the less all these fragments are reembodied in a set of practices which go under the revived name of physics, chemistry and biology. Adults argue with each other about the respective merits of relativity theory, evolutionary theory, and phlogiston theory, although they possess only a very partial knowledge of each. Children learn by heart surviving portions of the periodic table and recite as incantations some of the theorms of Euclid. Nobody, or almost nobody, realises that what they are doing is not natural science in any proper sense at all. For everything they do and say conforms to certain canons of consistency and coherence and those contexts which would be needed to understand what they are doing have been lost, perhaps irretrivably....

...in the actual world which we inhabit, the language of morality is in the same state of grave disorder as the language of natural science in the world which I described. What we possess, if this view is true, are the fragments of a conceptual scheme, parts of which now lack those contexts from which their significance derived. We possess indeed simulacra of morality, we continue to use many of the key expressions. But we have--very largely, if not entirely--lost our comprehension, both theoretical and practical, of morality. (MacIntyre, After Virtue, pp. 1-2)

If MacIntyre is right, the increasing fragmentation in education that Donn has identified is a result of the larger fragmentation of a conceptural scheme. MacIntyre gives a geneological account of this fragmentation in his great work, Three Rival Versions of Moral Enquiry.

One final detail remains before we can address Donn's post. How shall we understand "big box?" This will be the subject of my next post.

Meditation for Worship: January 18, 2009

------------------------------------------------------Cassatt, "The Maternal Kiss"

Readings for Second Sunday after Epiphany:
Psalm 139:1-18;I Samuel 3:1-20; John 1:43-51;
1 Corinthians 6:12-20

Tonight, as I think about writing the meditation for tomorrow's worship, I am trying to find a way to concentrate what I wrote for Psalm 139 here. Here's the best I can do:

Fetus Freedom

The story once started, “In the beginning, God…”
Now it starts, “I feel. I want.”
Lord, we live in times that are out of joint.

Just as the fetus develops physically in the womb,
so we develop physically and spiritually in the world.
And you, Lord, watch over it all.
Your boundaries offer protection, not limitation.
Those of us who know your grace and mercy don’t feel hemmed in or stunted.
We are Your people, the sheep of Your pasture.

But all around us are siren voices:
“Break free! Do it your way! Autonomy is the highest good!”
I think, “I will not surely die. My eyes will be opened, and I will be god.”
And before long, your pasture seems confining; I long for the grass beyond.
I despise the flock;
I am too good to be a sheep; I want to be whatever I want to be.
I am my own!

Oh Father,
use the Spirit’s rod and staff to restore me.
Remind us how you did not abhor the virgin’s womb,
But made yourself small so that we could be born and mature in You.
Take us in your arms, and whisper to us, "you are not your own; you are Mine!"

O Lord, in Thee have we have trusted:
Let us never be confounded.

Andrew Wyeth Dies

Andrew Wyeth died today. He was 91. I loved the cool clarity and austerity of his canvases. Though other works of his are far more popular, the one above, "Monday Morning," is my favorite. Go to the library and get a book which will offer a larger, better reproduction. Notice the way he paints the wicker, and the dusting of snow, and the stucco. Inhale the frosty air. Rest in the stillness.

Peace to his memory.

(View more examples of his work here.)

QUOTES: Avery Dulles on Faith and Reason

A friend recently asked me what I thought of Barth. I confessed that most of what I knew of him was secondhand, but that he was against natural theology. That is, he upheld a strict division between nature and grace, and therefore a radical division between faith and reason. I ought to read Barth, as he is such an important theologian, but I must admit that doing so feels like a chore. Perhaps I suffer from a "commitment to rationality?" ; )

"A sympathetic Protestant critic of Catholicism, Langdon Gilkey, holds that the drive towards rationality has been one of the distinctive strengths of Catholic Christianity. While making certain reservations, he praises Roman Catholicism for its insistence that the revealed mysteries must be as far as possible ‘penetrated, defended, and explicated by the most acute rational reflection.’ This commitment to rationality has prevented Catholicism, generally speaking, from falling into ‘revelational positivism’ (the fault of which Dietrich Bonhoeffer accused Karl Barth) and the kind of anti-intellectual fundamentalism so prevalent in some sectors of the United States today. Catholic Christianity, valuing both faith and reason, accepts the necessary tensions involved in working out a synthesis that does justice to both."–Avery Dulles, The Catholicity of the Church (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1987),53.

“Faith and reason are like the shoes on your feet – you can go further with both than with either by itself.”(--J. Michael Straczynski, Babylon 5 episode, "The Deconstruction of Falling Stars")

Calvinist Romance

via Brad; this is just too good to resist!
There's some great commentary at Stand Firm . One potential caption: "The man in the picture is obviously totally depraved, and her father is therefore free to unconditionally impose any punishment he may elect. In any case, said atonement should in no case be limited to less than 40 pellets of 12-guage rock salt. Thus does a good father insure his saintly daughter may perservere in her life of virtue." But my favorite is this snappy retort: "“What, no tulips?”

Finally, isn't it ironic that Mark Driscoll's wife is named Grace? (via New York Times Magazine)

Towards a Substantial (R)eligion

On the Church Then and Now blog, Kurt Frederickson writes,

Abraham Joshua Heschel in God in Search of Man despairs about the impotency of religion:

"It is customary to blame secular science and anti-religious philosophy for the eclipse of religion in modern society. It would be more honest to blame religion for its own defeats. Religion declined not because it was refuted, but because it became irrelevant, dull, oppressive, insipid. When faith is completely replaced by creed, worship by discipline, love by habit; when the crisis of today is ignored because of the splendor of the past; when faith becomes an heirloom rather than a living fountain; when religion speaks only in the name of authority rather than with the tone of compassion—the message becomes meaningless."

My heart is moved by Heschel's words, but not my head. Heschel falls into the modernist trap of either-or thinking, pitting faith against creeds, worship against discipline, love against habit, authority against compassion. This is like setting the Son against the Father.

Or think of it another way. At the risk of sounding too Aristotelian, there is matter and there is form; and then there is the union of the two which is substance. (r)eligion embraces either matter or form; but (R)eligion encompasses both, and is substantial. Purely material (r)eligion or purely formal (r)eligion is indeed "irrelevant, dull, oppressive, insipid." One can miss the mark as much by focusing exclusively on the crisis of today as by focusing on the splendors of the past. One can fail just as much by mistaking sentiment for compassion as by mistaking domination for authority.

But the living fountain that is substantial (R)eligion is a both-and affair: both the solid structure of the fountain and the flowing water it offers. Substantial (R)eligion is always relevant, sharp, illuminating, active, and liberating.

Heschel writes, "religion declined not because it was refuted." If one makes the distinction between (r)eligion and (R)eligion, then it is not accurate to say that (r)eligion has declined, but rather that (R)eligion is rare, which is not saying anything new. (R)eligion always has been, and always will be scarce, this side of heaven. As GKC once said, "Christianity has not been tried and found wanting; it has been found difficult and not tried."

Happy Birthday, Susan!

Today is Susan's 22nd birthday. We celebrated it a week ago, while she was still with us, and skyped her this afternoon. Nevertheless, Toronto is so far away! She seems to have had a pleasant enough day, with Greek pastries for breakfast, a trip to a street market with a couple of Canadian friends from the Classics department, and lunch at a Thai restaurant. For that I am grateful.

I remember the days when her birthday meant My Little Ponies, mermaid dolls, Stickies, and pinatas. God has been so good to give us the gift of this precious daughter. May He continue to bless her with life and health and opportunities to learn and grow.

Richard John Neuhaus is with the Lord

Nearly a month ago, we lost Cardinal Avery Dulles. Today, we lost Father Richard John Neuhaus, who was considered by Time magazine to be one of the "25 Most Influential Evangelicals."

From the National Catholic Reporter:
Fr. Richard John Neuhaus, a leading voice of Catholic conservatism in America, and one of those rare theologians and spiritual leaders whose influence vastly exceeded the boundaries of their religious community, has died at 72.

Neuhaus slipped away Jan. 8, shortly before 10 o’clock Eastern time. He never recovered from the weakness that sent him to the hospital the day after Christmas, caused by a series of side effects from the cancer he was suffering. (continued here.)

Whereas Dulles was raised a Presbyterian, and converted to Catholicism in 1940, Neuhaus was raised as a Missouri Synod Lutheran, and converted to Catholicism in 1990. He tells his story here.

Like Dulles, Neuhaus was an articulate and formidable thinker. While I did not always fully agree with his economic theory, I had great respect for his ethical and theological positions. I am an avid reader of First Things and a strong supporter of Evangelicals and Catholics Together. I have often used articles from First Things in my philosophy classes, agreeing with his friend George Weigel's assessment that "he [Neuhaus] had the rare ability of letting his own high intellectual and literary energy level energize others."

Both Avery Dulles and Richard John Neuhaus were able to build bridges with Protestants and motivated them to understand and counter the "Culture of Death." Christ's kingdom was richer because of these men. Now, while they behold the Lord face to face, we are left to continue the work that they so faithfully performed, and to continue to pray the Lord's prayer of John 17:

17"Sanctify them in the truth; Your word is truth.

18"As You sent Me into the world, I also have sent them into the world.

19"For their sakes I sanctify Myself, that they themselves also may be sanctified in truth.

20"I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word;

21that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.


Requiem æternam dona eis, Domine,
et lux perpetua luceat eis.

The Pulse Smartpen

Nunc dimittis...
the Pulse Smartpen has arrived.

I had no idea such a thing even existed until this morning, when a student came up in class to ask if it was okay for him to record lectures. Sure, I said. It was then that he told me about his new pen. It has an infrared camera, a microphone, and a computer, all stuffed into a pen casing. You take notes as usual, but later, you can tap anywhere in the body of your notes and listen to the lecture at that very point. Pretty cool.

But then Joanna brought up an ethical problem. "What about the students who can't afford all these technological gizmos? There are kids who don't have laptops; there are kids who can't even afford the smartpens. What happens to them? Doesn't it give the rich kids an unfair advantage academically?"

That's a good question. What do you think?

A Puritan's New Year's Prayer

Today's Worship Quote of the Week:

O LORD,
Length of days does not profit me except the days are passed in thy presence, in thy service, to thy glory.

Give me a grace that precedes, follows, guides, sustains, sanctifies, aids every hour,
that I may not be one moment apart from thee,
but may rely on thy Spirit
to supply every thought,
speak in every word,
direct every step,
prosper every work,
build up every mote of faith,
and give me a desire
to show forth thy praise,
testify thy love,
advance thy kingdom.

I launch my bark on the unknown waters of this year,
with thee, O Father, as my harbor,
thee, O Son, at my helm,
thee, O Holy Spirit, filling my sails.
Guide me to heaven with my loins girt,
my lamp burning,
my ear open to thy calls,
my heart full of love,
my soul free.

Give me thy grace to sanctify me,
thy comforts to cheer,
thy wisdom to teach,
thy right hand to guide,
thy counsel to instruct,
thy law to judge,
thy presence to stabilize.
May thy fear be my awe,
thy triumphs my joy.

—Arthur Bennett, editor. THE VALLEY OF VISION: A COLLECTION OF PURITAN PRAYERS AND DEVOTIONS. Carlisle, Pennsylvania: Banner of Truth Trust, 1999 (first published in 1975), p. 112. ISBN 0-85151-228-3.