Walter Wink: Naming the Powers: Language of Power in the New Testament (The Powers : Volume One)
i like wink a lot. anyone who can write an essay entitled "how i got snagged by the seat of my pants while reading the bible" is an instant hit in my book. couple this with an astute academic mind and a sincere desire to discover what it means to follow god in this generation and the man rises to virtual sainthood!
this is the first in wink's series on the principalities and "powers" mentioned throughout the bible. it is necessarily the most academic of the three as it sets the groundwork for the subsequent conclusions he pulls out on the other two books. but he writes well and covers the technical ground well.
this is an important book (particularly for the evangelical church i feel). wink's central thesis is that both the evangelical tradition (in believing the 'powers' to be wholly other-worldly, AND the liberation theology tradition (in locating the powers solely in this present world) are mistaken. both are challenged here - though his writing will raise the heckles of conservative evangelicals moreso than the liberationists i think.
this is a welcome surefire antidote to the inane and socially irresponsible teaching that spiritual warfare is conducted solely (or even mostly) on one's knees, rather than on the picket line, in the workplace, in the voting booth, in the day-to-day of normal living.
read it and buy an extra copy for your pastor! (***)
David Bodanis: E=mc2: A Biography of the World's Most Famous Equation
an immensely readable account of the equation most people are likely to be able to quote but few can explain. bodanis takes each element in the equation and tells the tale of the people responsible for the major discoveries in that area to show upon whose shoulders einstein stood and what the consequences for the 20th and 21st centuries and beyond have been and are.
don't be put off by the scientific nature of the subject matter, it really is written with the non-expert in mind. neat appendices tucked away at the back of the book and a web-site are where those wanting more detail are directed so as not to intimidate or overwhelm the masses. it really does read more like a social commentary/biography than a science book.
enlightening and light. a rare combination. nice. (****)
Peter Rollins: How (Not) to Speak of God
How_not_to_speak_of_god_cover how (not) to speak of god is an important and beautiful book. we are living in a fractured time. we do not yet know what we are let alone where we are going other than (in rollins’ words) “away-from-here.” we are defined by what we are not (postmodern) and by the fact that we are moving, or emerging, but not yet by what we are or by any final destination. it’s easy to lose hope in this generation. all the enlightenment promises of certainty, provability and universal Truth now look jaded in the cold and often terrifying light of postmodern philosophical thought.
into this arena steps my good friend, peter rollins and he is like a breath of fresh air. rollins is uniquely positioned to write this book of popular philosophical a/theology. he hails from the evangelical/charismatic tradition, so he is perfectly placed to offer a sensitive critique to that community; he has a doctorate in philosophy, so he is well-versed in nietzsche, jaques derrida, meister eckhart, jean-luc marion, hans-georg gadamer and so on and is able to appropritate their insights and criticisms into his and our theology; he has been a youth-worker and a conference speaker, so he has well-honed gifts in communication and is adept at making the profound intelligible to ordinary plebs like you and me; and he is actively involved in leadership of a christian community, so these issues are not theoretical to him, but deeply personal and practical.
if you’ve heard pete speak you’ll know how passionate he is about these issues. if you have heard him on more than one occasion, then to be honest there will be little new here for you. but that is a long way from saying that the book is not worth buying and reading. i read my copy in one sitting and will no doubt return to it again and again. as i do with every book i read this with a pen and a yellow highlighter in hand so as to be able to remember the important bits and note where i disagreed or was provoked to think about something. it’s now with some sense of dismay that i flick through a book where practically every page has a radioactive glow to it!
one of pete's chief gifts is in analogy and parable. how sad it is that jesus’ parables no longer take our breath away. truly great parables always have the audience nodding their heads as the story starts, thinking they know the ending right from the get-go only to be slapped in the face and completely offended by the shocking twist-in-the-tale. rollins stories are clever, poignant, offensive and often very moving. this is not a book of dull theology. this is a book of poetry.
rollins’ concern is that people often ask him what he believes but never how he believes. in his view belief should always be transformative
“the reversal from ‘right belief’ to ‘believing in the right way’ is in no way a move to some binary opposite of the first (for the opposite of right belief is simply wrong belief); rather, it is a way of transcending the binary altogether. thus orthodoxy is no longer (mis)understood as the opposite of heresy but rather is understood as a term that signals a way of being in the world rather than a means of believing things about the world… it is an approach which emphasises the priority of love: not as something which stands opposed to the knowledge of god, but, more radically still, as knowledge of god… orthodoxy, as believing in the right way, as bringing love to the world around us and within us … that will cost us everything. for to live by that sword, as we all know, is to die by it.” (pg 3.)
if you find yourself agreeing with everything rollins says here, he’d probably say himself that you’re not reading carefully enough. this is a book to rock our comfortable boat, to provoke thought, to engage and begin a conversation with the reader. don’t read this if your theology is rock-solid and water-tight, this book will either shatter that faith completely or make you want to crucify the author as a heretic!
i guess my only criticism of this book is that it’s left me hungry for more. i wish it had been two books rather than one. the first half of the book is the argument/discussion/theory; the second a series of ten liturgies, used by the ikon community in belfast to attempt to outwork the implications of living for christ today. liturgy needs to be experienced/said/shared to be truly effective. i want more of the thought-provoking insight contained in the first half. roll on book number two.
i’m concerned that this review doesn’t do justice to the book. rollins is a much better communicator than i am. his words are much more poetic than mine. if i’ve made it sound dull, philosophical and high-brow i’ve misled you. if you think this is another book of wishy-washy new-age theology again that’s probably my fault, for nothing could be further from the truth. read this book and if you ever get the opportunity, go and listen to this humble pilgrim. it sounds like i’m on his payroll. to be honest i struggle with much of rollin’s insight and thought. as paul tillich points out,
“most human beings of course are not able to stand the message of the shaking of the foundations. they reject and attack the prophetic minds, not because they really disagree with them, but because they sense the truth of their words and cannot receive it.”
i may disagree with his thinking at times (though I fear he is right more than i like to admit) but his commitment to and love for god are never in question. this book is a call to love god and love people.
sit up church. the voice of one calling “in the desert prepare the way of the lord.” there is a transformative message here for those who have ears to hear. (*****)
Bruce Ellis Benson: Graven Ideologies: Nietzche, Derrida & Marion on Modern Idolatry
ah what a welcome book! at last an evangelical who actually understands and takes seriously what nietzsche, derrida and marion (as well as many others such as husserl, heidegger, leotard, gadamer...) say. i'm so tired of reading christians, who really ought to know better, wailing a lament for a non-existent time past when everyone 'knew' the Truth, God could be proved and placed in a little rational box, and everyone knew right from wrong. these writers herald deconstructionism and phenomenology as simple relativism leading to inevitable nihilism; they set postmodern philosophy up as a straw man, astonishing (and sedating) us with their intellectual prowess, as they proceed to scare the big, bad, postmodern bogeyman away. benson points out that not only is this bogeyman not going anywhere fast, but he should be welcomed as a friend.
foundationalism is dead and gone - everyone (with the possible exception of the christian writers referred to above) knows this. the enlightenment deceived us. rather than nietzsche being the nihilist, benson points out that he simply pointed out the inevitable nihilism which results from modernism, and the christian morality which ties itself too closely with it.
now that we know that there is no foundation for knowledge (and never has been) which cannot be undermined somehow, benson forces the evangelical church to sit up and ask, 'what now?' here we find help in surprising places (at least for some). benson shows how the three thinkers in his title offer us some possible paths through this crisis.
his writing is clear and engaging and one quickly realises that this is somone who has read beyond the flycover of these authors - he has grappled with their thought at length. this would be a great first introduction to these philosophical greats, and really ought to be read by every thinking christian to see how we in the church ought to 'be' in our time.
brilliant. go. read.
now.
that is all. (*****)
Stanley J. Grenz: Renewing the Center: Evangelical Theology in a Post-Theological Era
stan grenz died in march 2005. his voice will be much missed in the contemporary debate within evangelicalism. although holding on to (too?) much traditional evangelical orthodoxy, grenz argues that evangelicals harken back to enlightenment principles (such as decartes' foundational view of epistemology) rather than facing up to the realities of the current thinking and new philosophical discoveries. this book is useful again as it addresses evangelicals in their own terms. no evangelical will be alienated by this book, but will find themselves gently nudged leftwards. therein lies my only criticism: the evangelical church needs dragged kicking and screaming and i wonder if this nudge is too subtle to really do the job. (***)
carl raschke: the next reformation: why evangelicals must embrace postmodernity
raschke writes from within the evangelical community. he writes with academic acumen and passion - a rare combination. this book is a really great introduction to the genuine postmodern debate, rather than the characature or straw man often presented in evangelical circles. raschke neither demonises nor lionises postmodernity, but simply shows the opportunities now facing church as a result of this new zeitgeist. rather than ignoring or rejecting culture outright, the church must realise that culture is amoral - available for appropriation and shaping - NOT immoral. that being the case, raschke is unrelenting in revealing just how completely the church has bought in to (or sold out to) modernity. the new challanges postmodernity presents us with as christians cannot be disregarded any longer. fore-warned is fore-armed. this book is apposite counsel. agree or disagree with raschke, he will not be easily dismissed. he is too briefly dismissive of the radical orthodoxy movement and his last couple of chapters are less rigorous and academic than the rest - he seems to come close to suggesting that the charismatic movement is the ideal representation of postmodern church. this could have been remedied by more rigorous editing as it is obvious they would be better suited to a more testimonial-type book. the rest, however, is excellent. (****)
E.P. Sanders: Paul: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introduction S.)
this is a lovely series of books - beautifully simple presentation. this one is a reprint of sanders earlier "paul" (1971). he single-handedly changed the way the apostle paul is studied in theology - reponsible for the so-called "new perspective on paul". this is a very readable and enjoyable introduction to the most important christian theologian of all time. whether you've studied theology or not this tiny little book will whet your appetite for more! while you're at it buy a copy for your pastor/minister/priest. easy to fit in your pocket and read in a couple of hours on the train. (****)
John Caputo: On Religion (Thinking in Action S.)
ok so jack caputo's a total heretic. tell him something he doesn't know! this book is beautiful. caputo is an inspirational writer. his most mundane prose still rings with a poetry that puts most authors (never mind theologians!) to shame. his thoughts are always challenging (especially to those of an evangelical persuasion) but this is postmodern theology at its best. you don't have to believe everything he says to appreciate the beauty of his thinking. highly recommended. (****)
James D. G. Dunn: A New Perspective on Jesus: What the Quest for the Historical Jesus Missed (Acadia Studies in Bible and Theology)
a genuinely fresh insight. james dunn's book attempts to do for jesus what he has previously attempted to do for paul - get back to the original. traditionally trying to get back to the 'real' jesus results in 'the jesus seminar' type approach - religating anything which smacks of the supernatural to get back to 'the historical jesus.' dunn argues tis approach is doomed to fail; that the ONLY record we have of jesus is that written through the eyes of faith. jesus' disciples talked about him, wrote about him, followed him BECAUSE they believed he was the messiah. the 'historical' jesus is therefore synonymous with the christ of faith.
wonderful insight. easy to read and thoroughly engaging. a great counter to post-liberal scholarship. a valuable voice in the continuing debate over the nature and identity of jesus. (****)
Alain Badiou: Saint Paul: The Foundation of Universalism (Cultural Memory in the Present)
an interesting find this one: an atheist writing on paul! now before you turn away in disdain, he's got some really interesting and profound insight. it's only 128 pages so it's not going to suck up your entire life to take some time looking it over. he argues that paul sees the world in terms of jews and greeks who look to prophets and philosophers respectively as sources of authority. badiou argues that paul is able to appeal for universal acceptance of the truths he proclaims by appealing to apostolic authority in opposition to jewish and greek authority figures. interesting, challenging and insightful. (****)
Brian D. McLaren: A Generous Orthodoxy: Why I Am a Missional, Evangelical, Post/Protestant, Liberal/Conservative, Mystical/Poetic, Biblical, Charismatic/Contemplative, Fundamentalist/Calvinist, Anabaptist/Anglican, Methodist, Catholic, Green, Incarnational, Depressed-yet-Hopeful, Emergent, Unfinished CHRISTIAN
What a breath of fresh air Brian McLaren is. He's another one like Jimmy Dunn who encourages me to stay within the evangelical church. he's DELIBERATELY provocative and abstruse to encourage and open up discussion rather than close it down (a point many of his detractors seem to forget!) He tries to take the best from the many traditions within Christendom while generously overlooking their weaknesses. of course i don't agree with all he says. but of course i've never found an author with whom i totally agree. How dull if i did! that's what makes them thought-provoking and challenging to me!
fresh and inspiring. (*****)
D. A. Carson: Becoming Conversant with the Emerging Church : Understanding a Movement and Its Implications
ok so it's carson so you prety much know from the outset where he's coming from. I'm fascinated by the emerging church movement (no doubt you'll read more and more about it on this site.) The biggest criticism i have of the it is that often it's a movement in search of a theology.
although carson critiques the movement from the right he gives a more sympathetic hearing to emerging church than you might think. it's certainly a good book to introduce mainstream to conservative evangelicals to the opportunities (as well as what carson sees as some pitfalls) presented by living in our times. (***)
G.K. Chesterton: Orthodoxy
what do you mean you haven't read this???!!! Stop wasting your time on the internet and GET THIS BOOK!!! I first read this book 15 years ago but i think it's only now that i'm appreciating the sheer genius of the man! If anyone can read chapter 4 'The Ethics of Elfland' without a huge smile on their face i'll eat ... well at least a donut on your behalf!!
Truly postmodern apologetics at it's best. Chesterton argues persuasivley that the MOST real and factual things we know do not come through science or mathematics but fairy tales.
GENIUS!!! (*****)
Leonard Sweet: Church in Emerging Culture: Five Perspectives
Another book that gives me hope. The Church in general and the evangelical church in particular seems hell-bent on ignoring culture at best or, in the scant attention it does pay, seems to be focused soley on denouncing rather than on understanding and assimilating where appropriate. This book is a good popular attempt to support a dialogue within the evangelical church on various options for progress.
The foramat of this book is also novel and interesting. Each of the authors writes their owb chapters (coming from very disparate theological stances within evangelicalism) which are interspersed in grayscale with supportive or argumentative responses from the other authors. [Not really sure i'm communicating that well. Take a wee look at the book and you'll instantly understand what i'm talking about.] The overall impression becomes one of an emerging conversation and discussion rather than a univocular polemic.
This isn't an academic book (i mean that in a good way!) so definitely pick it up and give it a go. (****)
Anthony C. Thiselton: The First Epistle to the Corinthians (New International Greek Testament Commentary Series)
Well it's not exactly a quick read weighing in at an astounding 1480 pages but this commentary is EXCELLENT. What can i say. I've had the privilege of being taught by Anthony. He's a legend. Reading Anthony is like reading EVERYONE who's ever said ANYTHING theological about 1st Corinthians. It's easy to become overwhelmed with the sheer enormity of the research this volume represents, but Anthony's style is always fresh and engaging. He gives his own translation from the Greek and then gives lucid and (IMHO) balanced comment on the various positions that have been taken on this letter while not hesitating to nail his own colours to the mast.
This is highly recommended for anyone who has an interest in hermeneutics or Pauline theology in general or 1st Corinthians in particular. (*****)
James Dunn: The Theology of Paul the Apostle
jimmy dunn's a bit of a star. he's one of the authors that keeps me calling myself an evangelical. if there's room for the likes of him there's room for me. his writing is easy to read, scholarly and engaging - an unusual mix! add to this dunn's ability to take on board the latest theological discoveries on Paul without losing the wonder of the salvation Paul himself seeks to describe and proclaim and you've got a great theology text. (****)
Bible & Culture Collective: The Postmodern Bible
an interesting collection of essays on various approaches adopted by postmodern theologians to biblical criticism - including reader-response, deconstructionalist and a host of others. (***)
as always, the irrepressible genius, ze frank, says it better than just about anyone. if you're unsure what all the fuss is about regarding the elections in iran, ze will put you straight in this three minute video for time.com.
dear molly,
happy four month birthday!
what a month it's been for you my beautiful girl! i've been checking for signs since before you were born and i can now happily report that spring has almost sprung! there are teeny, tiny buds on some of the trees and a huge swathe of blue melt now cuts through the ice on the river. everything is beginning to change and you are no exception! this has been a month of big changes in you and it has been a joy to be there watching you grow into the world.
you discovered your feet this month! it has come as something of a revelation to you that these alien, wriggling things are actually attached to you – both of them! - and you spend long, long minutes just wiggling your toes and staring at them. this has caused your mum and i endless moments of joy (honestly, we're laughing with you!)
by-the-way, what is it with you and your complete inability to have a quiet poo?! we rarely, if ever, have to guess when you're in need of a diaper/nappy change, since you so thoughtfully furbish us with a rich and thunderous soundscape to announce the need every single time you go! there's absolutely nothing subtle or ladylike about the whole thing – you need to understand – walls and windows shudder and eardrums threaten to explode!
what is especially endearing is when you perform this feat in public, before an audience of strangers – say, for example, in a quiet coffee shop. there's no way we could ever convince the stunned onlookers that such a noise ever came from such a tiny person, so all we do is try to avert our eyes from their offended stares and try to become momentarily invisible!
Continue reading "dear molly - happy four month birthday!" »
so clint eastwood’s latest movie has finally reached us in backwoods new brunswick. i’m a huge eastwood fan. unforgiven, million dollar baby and pale rider rank among my favourite movies. so i was really looking forward to seeing the last movie in which eastwood himself will act.
gran torino was touted as a definite contender for oscar nomination. in the end it was pipped to the post. the movie scores an impressive 8.4 at the moment in the internet movie database and rates at 80% in rotten tomatoes! it is clint eastwood’s biggest grossing movie ever in the us and the uk.
i’d like to take a moment, however, to swim against this excremental tide and state categorically that the shame is not that clint missed out on his nomination, but that the movie was ever considered oscar material in the first place! please understand, i am not saying that gran torino isn’t quite as good as critics have made it out to be, or that the eventual nominees just squeezed this great movie out of a deserved shot at oscar immortality; no, i am saying that this movie is utterly appalling, bereft of artistic merit and should be avoided at all cost! i cannot remember a movie for which i had such high expectations, which, upon viewing, i detested so thoroughly.
Continue reading "gran torino is really more of a sad, old loser-cruiser!" »
dear molly,
well, you’ve now attained the grand old age of 3 whole months - a whole quater of a year! it’s practically old age! good for you, congratulations and well done little girl. keep up the good work!
Continue reading "dear molly - happy three month birthday" »
well, we’ve been here for two years now and the reasons to stay still far outweigh any reasons we’d have to return to the uk. however, it must be said, new brunswick does fall short in a few categories. so after my last post on why new brunswick beats the uk, here’s 10 reasons why the uk is better than new brunswick – just to balance the books and keep everyone happy:
Continue reading "10 reasons why the uk beats new brunswick" »
we're often asked why on earth we chose new brunswick in canada to settle when we literally could have gone anywhere in the world. (often the people asking in surprise are the very new brunswickers amongst whom we live!) so i thought i'd give you just some of the reasons we made our decision:
Continue reading "10 reasons why new brunswick beats the uk" »
so i'm almost 38; half way to 76; right in the thick of the middle of my life - perfect timing for a crisis.
not having a tv of our own, we saw "it" camped on the couch at our friends' house, watching it on their huge widescreen tv.
mickey rourke's eponymous turn in the wrestler is one not to miss. i've been a fan of mickey rourke ever since i saw the spell-binding angel heart and then barfly way back when i was 16 or 17 (yes, smartass, they had moving pictures back then!) i saw the earlier rumble fish at some later point and his place in my heart was sealed.
a movie depicting the waning days of the career of a professional wrestler may not seem like everybody’s cup of tea, but the wrestler really is unmissable. the theme is hardly anything new - faded glory, contemplation of regrets — and it could so easily be a sacarin-sweet, made-for-tv movie were it not for the outstanding performances at its heart (most notably that of rourke) and the wonderful direction of darren aronofsky.
again, i’m a huge fan of aronofsky. his debut pi is one of my all-time favourite movies (what’s not to love about a black and white movie which combines kaballah, chaos theory, mental illness, the stockmarket and hassidic jewry?!) and requiem for a dream, while, admittedly, not for everyone, is a tour-de-force — a brutal and unrelenting tale of self-destruction wonderfully told. i even like aronofsky’s more commercial effort, the fountain, though i do admit, it ultimately falls short of the sheer genius of the first two (see my full review here). the wrestler is a much simpler tale than the fountain and is all the better for it.
just to let you know that my post on the war in gaza has been picked up by steve knight at emergent village and posted over there as well. feel free to have a look at it here and take a good look around while you're over there.
everyone in the entire world knows the utterly essential and totally inevitable settlement between israel and (non-existent) palestine will be a two-state solution, which will demand compromise from both sides. the international community has also agreed (through the united nations on too many occasions to keep track of) that israel has done in the (formerly named) 'occupied territories' is illegal - not to say utterly immoral.
yet when president elect obama - the soon-to-be leader of the world’s only remaining superpower - is asked to speak to the present situation in the gaza strip, he refuses to comment. (it galls me to call the massacre, mayhem, countless atrocities and apparent war crimes which are being perpetrated by a highly organised, highly funded, nuclear power in one of the world’s most densely-populated areas a “situation”, but all that is by-the-by). of course, obama says he will have much to say, once he is inaugurated. but, if a week is a long time in politics it is a bleak eternity for a bombed people, blanket-labelled ‘terrorist’ (or ‘terrorist sympathisers’ at the very least) by a country which has the military might to blow them right out of existence.
obama is no doubt scared of alienating the huge number of americans who unflinchingly (and unquestioningly) support the israeli government in everything it does. during his contest with mccain, obama was frequently accused, by the republican smear machine, of being anti-israel; he was also accused of being a muslim, as if this, even were it true, were an intrinsically bad thing to be.
would it surprise you to learn that there are as many muslims as jews in the united states of america? yet their voices are drowned out by the barrage of pro-israel media coverage in the united states. indeed, any criticism of israel’s domestic or foreign policy is immediately denounced as “anti-semetic”. please note that this is ridiculous for at least two reasons: firstly, simply labeling criticisms does nothing whatsoever to refute their specific claims. secondly, does no-one realise that the palestinian people are semites as well? so, in discussing the sides in this conflict, it is impossible to be anti-semetic!
coming from northern ireland, as i do, i know first-hand that painting any long-term conflict in either/or, black/white, all/nothing terms is completely unhelpful. us versus them. good versus evil. we are the good guys; they are the bad guys. we are victims; they are aggressors. we are innocent; they are guilty. we are individuals; they are monolithic. we think for ourselves; they all think alike.
of course it’s all simplistic nonsense. conflict is complex.
why can't obama be called both pro-palestinian and pro-israel??
well, you see, it’s because the bible says that jesus is coming back and that israel plays some kind of vital part in that. interfering with israel is therefore tantamount to standing in the path of god himself. god is on our side and the side of israel.
it sounds ludicrous when put this starkly, but this is the kernel of the credo of a great many people in the west. not to sound facetious or anything, but there really are some people out there who use the old testament as a science text book, a horoscope and a foreign policy dictation list.
"what we do to you, we do because our god has mandated it." to be honest, i find this line of reasoning deeply disturbing. i've heard it for 30 years growing up in ireland, i've heard it from the bush regime to justify the doctrine of pre-emptive strike and from al qaeda and the taliban. "our god wants to kick your ass and obliterate the memory of you from the face of the earth."
it's most worrying because in being utterly devoid of reason, it is utterly irrefutable. as voltaire said: "those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.
these people talk about israel as if it were still 1948. the situation in which israel finds itself is very different than it was in the few years following the 2nd world war. israel then was a nascent state - beleaguered, orphaned, ravaged and financially almost bankrupted. there is no doubt that israel is indeed surrounded by nations by which it is hated, but part of the blame for this, at least, lies at israel's own door - the massacres in lebanon, the annexing of the gaza strip, the daily humiliation of palestinians (including palestinian israelis!) are part of the reason for the animosity.
now of course there is enough blame to go around. of course we don't need to get into the atrocities committed by the plo, hezbolah, hamas etc. over the years. but to portray israel as a simple victim is simply ridiculous, and to dumbly repeat the mantra that she has a right to defend herself does not give israel carte blanche to act with impunity. remember that a disproportionate retaliation is by definition a war crime under the geneva conventions. if you kill my father i cannot come and wipe out your entire village; if you fire crude rockets randomly into my territory, i cannot air bomb your schools and hospitals killing (to date) more than 1000 of your compatriots! and, under no circumstances, am i justified in using chemical weapons.
israel is vastly more wealthy than the palestinian people - due to the utterly unquestioning support it receives from america (fueled of course by this right wing, un-nuanced, messianic, self-fulfilling, armageddon type thinking to which i have already alluded). and, let us not forget, israel is a nuclear power!!!
once the victim gains power it must alter its language and its behaviour, otherwise it simply becomes the vengeful bully itself and the cycle continues. this is of course the great shame of post-constantinian christendom. the christians, having been victimised and persecuted for 3 centuries, gain power and perpetrate the most appauling atrocities on their historic oppressors for 2 thousand years (see luther's scandalous treatise "on the jews and their lies" and the crusades and the catholic church's reaction to the holocaust and and and...)
with economic and political power comes enormous responsibility and a need for courage and leadership.
the resolution of the middle east conflict will take many years and demand nuanced negotiation and compromise from both sides (as in ireland, south africa, the former yugoslavia, georgia etc.) it is simply wrong to portray one side (particularly the one which in the moment is dominant economically, militarily and politically) as being the oppressed victim. it was this kind of language which stopped protestants in northern ireland from supporting the civil rights movement there, demanding equal rights for their catholic brothers and sisters. this undoubtedly extended the "troubles" by many years.
can you imagine the difference had ian paisley stood side by side with john hume in those heady days in the late ‘60s and said of course gerrymandering was wrong, of course the housing situation was immoral, of course catholics had just as much right to free voting, of course, of course!! it would have been a show worthy of the name of christ himself.
such leadership, it seems to me, is needed in israel at the moment. it's such a shame that tzipi livni failed in her attempt to form a strong coalition government and it looks as if the hawks will triumph there once again. the world is worse for it i fear.
so, as israel crams in all the carnage she can before the neo-cons leave the white house, what can we do? it seems not much other than pray. so pray we must. pray for an immediate cessation of violence on both sides. pray for something approaching equity in the long-term coverage of this internecine conflict. obviously, if a solution is to be found, it will take a massive amount of international time and effort. to that effect, pray that the un and (especially) the incoming administration in the united states will throw their considerable might into finding a lasting solution to this seemingly intractable problem.
until then, pray for the families of the dead and injured in gaza and those in israel, that they will somehow know peace and comfort and not be driven to despair or violence themselves. pray that this incredible aggression will not fuel terrorist uprisings in other parts of the world; that no new bin ladens will be spawned from this evil; that concord and charity will trump terror and hatred once and for all; that the sons of abraham will finally be reconciled in a just and lasting peace.
dear molly, happy birthday. you are officially one month old today. it's hard to believe you've been with us that long; it's hard to believe you've only been with us that long! you’ve peed on me, pooed on me, thrown up over me and tortured your mum and me by sleep deprivation - and neither of us would change a single second. you've wiggled your way into just about every single part of our lives and our hearts and it's impossible to imagine life without you.
well, it turns out that my little daughter must have been thinking chubby thoughts all day as she piled on an impressive 50 grams overnight. this put her a humungous 20 grams over the minimum weight required for a car seat. at a full 8 days old she’s still so teeny tiny!
so, sure enough, the doctor was as good as his word. as soon as he saw that molly had put on weight for the third day in a row he agreed to discharge her! yay! we could finally start becoming a real family in our own space, in our own time. what a relief it was to finally get out of that hospital; to bid farewell to the beige and the florescence and the smell and the constant surveillance.
well, i know parenthood is supposed to have its ups and downs, but really, did we have to cram so many into the first few days? we’re only novices, for goodness’ sakes!
as i said before, molly had been making amazing progress and, after the initial disappointment of having her taken from us so quickly after her birth to be put into intensive care, the quotidian news we got about her was good, good, good.
and then that crazy nurse just walks right in and announces “molly’ll be going for an ultrasound today to check out that dimple on her back.”
hold on a minute! what dimple? ultrasound? what?!
Continue reading "the bedside chronicles (part 7) - rollercoaster" »
i can hardly believe we’re at the end of day 3 of having molly in our lives. already it’s impossible to imagine life without her - she has carved out such a special place in our hearts.
i know you’re all itching for an update of the most pressing issues, so i’ll start in order of importance:
my crying seems to be abating - only three times today! yay me! go daddy go! see, i’m getting the hang of this parenthood thing fine. it’s not that emotional. i’m hard; i’m tough - a genuine manly-man! o yeah!
it’s just her wee face, you see - sometimes it’s just too beautiful to really take in; then there’s the wrinkles in her hands and her feet; her rosebud lips and little mushroom chin; the crease in her upper arms; the way she kicks her skinny legs right out and splays her toes; her big stretches and yawns; the way she sucks and sucks and sucks, till the milk runs right down her neck; the softness of her back and the pointiness of her ears; the teeny, tiny nails on her fingers and toes; the way she looks right at me when she’s in my arms…
ok. breathe. now look what you’ve done! and i was doing so well!
still, four times is perfectly acceptable!
don’t even get me started on the other stuff (the bad stuff) which i’ll type out quickly and not really stop to think about. like how she startles sometimes and i worry that she does that when she is in the intensive care unit without her mummy or daddy near her to re-assure her; or how she spends the majority of her time without us at the moment; or what it was like to see our little girl in the incubator with an iv in her arm; or when she was blind-folded under the heat-lamps being treated for her jaundice, crying and reaching up into the air for help; or those first few moments after her birth when i basically waited on tenderhooks for the medical staff to tell me whether she was going to survive.
let’s just say, my tear ducts are thoroughly flushed out and clog-free!
so, now that my news is out of the way, there may be one or two who want to hear about my two girls. in short, they are both doing really well. alli has definitely been the more concerning of the two overall. her blood pressure has been pretty much life-threatening a number of times now and still isn’t stabilised. the doctors were hopeful that once she had delivered smudge, she would be pretty much cured within 24 hours. sadly, that has not been the case. today she was put on an additional drug and, for the first time since we got here last tuesday, things are looking more balanced. only a few spikes every now and then, rather than the constant worry.
alli is by no means out of the woods yet, we’ve still only been allowed a meagre dribbling of visitors in the last 2 days (a comment on their quantity, not their quality. no honestly, i’m being serious! no really, you guys weren’t at all boring and dull. seriously! o all right, believe what you will!) this has meant that the entire experience has been a pretty isolating one. alli and i have both felt quite lonely and far away from home for the first time in many years. the first three days were the worst as alli was pretty much unconscious for most of it and our situation was so extremely grave. with no one to talk it all over with and not wanting to leave her bedside for a second, only blogging, checking facebook and email and text messages on my incredible iphone kept us going. again thanks for the sustenance - every single message sent gets read to alli (and sometimes molly too!)
now that things are starting to turn the corner i’m going to go ahead and say it: even though there’s still a big sign on our door saying “no visitors!” please come and say hi if you can, just don’t stay too long because, although she looks her usual radiant self (and is almost beside herself with joy at the prospect of being in skinny jeans again before too long!!), she is still not at all well. as alli has been pretty much asymptomatic, the only things which alert us to the severity are the figures from her blood pressure and her blood and urine tests. we’re being sick by numbers!!
molly has been making progress by leaps and bounds. after the initial shock of having to have her in the neonatal intensive care unit, all the other information we have received about her has been really positive. every single time she comes to visit, she’s passed a new threshold and because we weren’t really all that sure what that those markers were in the first place, they have come as the most wonderful surprises: she's out of her incubator and into a little bed; she has her feeding tube removed; and her iv; and she's graduated from a red to a yellow nipple on her supplement bottle (because her suck is so good); we're now feeding her every 3 hours 24/7; yesterday we had her in our room totally unsupervised for 3.5 hours instead of the usual 30-45 minutes and the latest thing we've just heard is that she has stopped losing weight (a normal newborn phenomenon) and has gained 20 grammes! go molly!!
ah, that doesn't even count as 5! it's still 4 (and a half maybe!)
dear molly,
Continue reading "the bedside chronicles (part 5) - dear molly" »
i'm the most blessed man in the world. i now have 2 gorgeous girls in my life. i make no apology for the sentimentality because i just couldn't be prouder. molly joan magee made her debut in this world at 8:57am atlantic time on thursday 4th of december 2008 (nice even numbers for a birthday!) she weighed 5lbs 3oz - a very respectable weight for one born at 35 weeks and 6 days! she's gorgeous and healthy and happy - just what we prayed for. she is a genuine miracle and i have been completely taken by surprise by how much love is bursting out of my heart for a wee person i've only just met.
Continue reading "the bedside chronicles (part 4) - family" »
if you ask me, it's downright irresponsible to give a pre-term baby a grappling hook - yet clearly someone has done just that and smudge is now using it to full effect to lodge him or herself firmly inside alli's uterus!
we've been confined inside this dull, dim room for 36 hours now and the walls are definitely starting to close in. alli's getting frustrated and a bit overwhelmed by it all. the doctor has just given her an ativan to keep her calm and rested and thankfully, she has been able to sleep through a good portion of last night and today. the disease has progressed to the stage where they've even stopped doing some of the tests on alli's blood as they simply know it's getting worse and worse and it won't get any better until this little kid decides to come out for a look around. the doctors felt the gel had pretty much done all it was ever going to do and started inducing labour several hours ago now. things are still progressing excruciatingly slowly though with alli's cervix only dilating by fractions since we arrived.
apparently we are progressing though, which is encouraging, sort of! they still haven't decided whether the baby's going to come tonight or if they'll stop and let alli sleep through the night and start the process up again in the morning. to be honest, i'm not sure which option we'd even prefer at this stage even if it were up to us.
it seems this wee one takes after its mother: stubborn, unbiddable and willful! s/he also seems to be happy, active and healthy - like its dad! :0)
less than a day till i can drop that slash from smudge's pronoun!!
so, we're in good hands, receiving great care and are encouraged and blessed by all your messages of support.
keep watching this space. hopefully the next time it'll be the three magees rather than just us two!
well it's been a long night. now that the decision has been made that smudge is coming, the problem is convincing alli's body that that's the case. the doctors have been puting a gel called prostin on alli's cervix to convince it to dilate, thin and soften. they were hoping, initially, that one 1mg dose might suffice but alli's always been a stubborn one, and here we are after a further three doses of 2mgs each - possibly with more to come!!
alli and i went today for our normal bi-weekly check up at the clinic today and no sooner were we there than a doctor came in to the treatment room and, without even so much as pausing to introduce herself, told us we had to get to the regional hospital (only 20 minutes away) as soon as we possibly could. alli had a very high level of protein in her urine and super-high blood pressure. to be honest, we didn't really panic or anything at that stage. it was only when the doctor said she'd really like the baby to stay in for 3 or 4 more days if at all possible that we started to realise how potentially serious this could be.
so, 20 minutes later we arrive at the regional and head for the fetal-monitoring room, only to find that the techniciany-type person was out to lunch and wouldn't be back for 30 minutes. as i said, we didn't really know how urgent our situation was and if we should just wait for the person to return or try to get someone else to help so i went looking for assistance from another ward. one of the nurses disappeared for a minute with the information we'd been given from the other hospital and returned a few minutes later at a pretty brisk pace replete with wheelchair!
alli was immediately admitted and full histories, blood work and urine samples were taken. she was examined by several nurses and doctors over the next hour or so and was put in a dimly-lit room and hooked up to an iv of magnesium sulphate to prevent her from going into seizure! we were told the lights have to be kept very dim and if she has to be moved over the coming days, they will put a towel over her eyes! she us not allowed to watch tv or even to talk much as her situation is pretty grave. a consultant had already been informed of alli's condition and had made the call that smudge was coming out, ready or not! we're only 35 weeks and 4 days into our pregnancy, so this is a bit of a scary call!!
it turns out that alli's body was already getting ready for smudge's arrival and she was 1cm dilated and having contractions without her even being aware of anything at all! so, as it now stands, alli is on constant watch with total bed rest. she isn't allowed to leave the bed for any reason at all for the next 3-4 days. we were hoping for a very natural, drug-free delivery involving birthing balls, walking, sitting, squatting, showers, baths and the like; all that has now changed - we're simply hoping and praying that both alli and smudge come through this both healthy and happy. the nurse monitoring alli is not allowed to leave her side for any reason at all - if alli needs another pillow her nurse has to call another nurse to get it. it'll be like this for 24 hours after smudge is born too. they've already prepared us for possibly a couple of weeks in the intensive care unit for smudge (though it could be much less) and we aren't allowed any visitors for at least 24 hours after smudge gets here.
alli is the most worrying case they have at the moment and lots and lots of resources are being funnelled our way.
so, the long and short of it is that in the next few hours we're going to be parents. not exactly the way we'd hoped it would be - but then this child just wouldn't be a magee were it to behave exactly as expected! i've always said conventionality is over-rated!
to be honest it's a scary time and a bit overwhelming. please keep us in your prayers.
our god is not shocked by this.
up until the 1940s the west was wrestling and fighting hard to find the best system by which to govern itself. communism, fascism and 'democracy' wrestled it out on the world stage with our present system becoming the winner by default rather than merit (remember churchill's aphorism that it's the worst way to run a country, apart from all the others we've tried). it seems western capitalism (usually) works really well for those of us lucky enough to be on top of the heap - by virtue of our skin colour, our geography, our innate intelligences, our education, our gender, our sexual preferences etc. for the rest of the world it has always been a system which squashes down the 90% to allow the 10% to rise to the top - and in the last months we have seen that it doesn't even work for the 10% and we need the biggest socialist intervention in world history to bail even us out.
capitalism is a beast that will eat itself!
i remember my best friend in school coming in one day and asking me if i’d seen the new movie “pretty woman” with a brand new lead, julia roberts, who was, according to my friend, the hottest thing on earth since fire had been discovered. and so began my obsession with redheads - from faux to genuine…
but that’s another story!
anyway, at the end of this cinderella fairy-tale, after the prince has scooped the girl onto his white steed, the camera focuses on a homeless guy ranting to (or at) bemused passers-by on the streets of l.a. “everybody’s got a dream” he says, “what’s your dream?” the idea being that america is the place where all your dreams can come true — where every prostitute has the chance of meeting and marrying a handsome multi-millionaire, who knows everything about her and still loves her passionately.
of course, it’s a lie. hooking is lewd, grubby, isolating and dangerous and america is a country where the rich get obscenely rich and the poor stay put, at best. so it is with most dreams — they lose their lustre in the unforgiving daylight. (had joseph known that his brothers bowing before him would come only after slavery, exile and imprisonment, i wonder if he would have been so quick to boast to them of his visions).
where
do i begin? it’s been a while. i’ve been silent (silenced) too long i
think. time to ease my way back into this thing. i’ve generally been feeling
uninspired over the last few months, very few people were reading what i was
writing anyway, so it felt like it wasn’t exactly a huge loss to the blogging
community to go on hiatus.
that being said, i’m back – without much rhyme or reason really.
it feels great to be back on the road. we’re travelling the 1500km to guelph, ontario for the wedding of alli’s great aunt pearl to ted. pearl is in her 70s (never tell a lady’s exact age!) and has more energy than i do. pearl’s life hasn’t been the easiest and now she’s fallen in love with a guy who treats her like she’s a princess. it’s a little fairy tale and we’re going to help her celebrate.
the reids (alli’s vast clan) need little excuse for a get-together and a party and so the wedding will be hiving with cousins, uncles, nieces and the like who have flown in from all over the place. we’re most excited about seeing alli’s dad and his wife noreen who are coming to stay with us for a couple of weeks after the party dies down - there could well be snow on the ground by then!
so i'm fifteen years old (the year is somewhere around the 1830s!) and i'm sitting on the floor in ardaluin house in newcastle, county down on a scripture union weekend retreat. there are around 80 14-17 year olds from the one school (belfast high school) who are there to learn more about being dedicated followers of jesus - it has become something of an annual tradition by that stage. the speaker is concluding the session with a call to repentance before we share communion together. he alludes to matthew's words (in chapter 18) about the value of unity in fellowship coupled with his exhortation to leave your offering at the altar if you remember your brother or sister has something against you. jesus tells us to repair that relationship and only then return to worship god (matthew 5:21-26). the speaker then invites us to examine our hearts, be reconciled to one another and repair broken friendships before we continue with the session.
i can remember like it was yesterday wracking my brain to think of someone who would have something against me, someone who i had hurt or treated unfairly, a genuine enemy with whom i needed to make up. it is a fruitless exercise. try as i might, no name comes to mind.
i feel almost despondent.
as a teenager keith green was a huge influence on me. one of my youth leaders in church recorded some of his albums on tape for me when i was about 14. his was the first contemporary christian music i had ever heard. i listened to those tapes until they literally wore out. then when i was about 17, melody green's account of her husband's life "no compromise" came out. i tore through the book in one sitting and am still reeling from the impact all these years later. i don't think any other book has affected my life quite as much as that one.
Continue reading "keith green - part of the great cloud of witnesses" »
i’m a music snob. i like things done my way and don’t bend easily to other people’s preferences. corporate worship for me (is that an oxymoron already?) often seems loud, hollow, brash, repetitive, devoid of theology, grace, reverence, awe and fodder for my mind to feed on.
and so i sit - the silent one in the noise; the monk at the rock concert. i appreciate the music - the skill of the musicians; the wonder of syncopation - and so i’m somehow able to worship; but indirectly - in spite of, rather than because of, the style adopted.
there has to be more!
john 9 is one of the (if not the) most tightly woven naratives in the entire new testament. the chapter shows off john's utter brilliance in story-telling as he not only seamlessly illustrates his ongoing themes of light and darkness, but also clearly shows that jesus' signs do in fact illustrate that he is sent from god. the pharisees have utterly failed in their role as israel's watchmen, not because they are skeptical, but because they don't even question their assumptions. the tale is both hilarious and heart-breaking, ultimately transforming the nature of disability itself and showing jesus' tender concern for the ostracised.
previous instalments:
and again, for the obsessive compulsives out there who JUST CAN'T WAIT, click on the link below to listen right here.
i've been enjoying your generous comments and emails. please keep them coming. hope this scratches an itch (or better yet, creates an itch where there wasn't one before!) and encourages you to pick up the texts for yourself and maybe even share your learning with other people.
there are days when the entire theological project seems utterly ridiculous to me. i read so many blogs where the conversation revolves endlessly around issues like exactly how christ’s death on a cross applies to our life today; adherents to the vicarious atonement theory battle it out passionately with those “heretics” who dare to question or suggest that the governmental theory, the ransom theory, or even the moral-influence theory may have something to offer.
in other places, i see bloggers genuinely attempting to wrestle with the myriad mysteries of life and faith in god, only to be either denounced wholeheartedly in the comments section, or, worse still, quiesced with vague, meaningless god-talk which adds nothing whatsoever to the conversation. this drivel would be utterly incomprehensible to any chance reader who had not been reared in exclusively churchy circles. it is unintelligible not because it uses technical christian language, but, rather, because it is quintessentially weak, woolly and utterly devoid of discernible meaning! bromides such as “god bless” and “all things work together for good” are tossed out without thought or care in the face of human tragedy and great suffering - on and on it goes.
welcome to christianville!
john 8 is one of my favourite chapters in this gospel. it leaves absolutely no room for thinking that jesus was simply a good teacher as many have claimed. these are emphatically not the words of a good man!
previous instalments:
ok so we started into chapter eight with good intentions an then the discussion began to wander. we meandered through what happens to you when you die; predestination versus free will; can you lose your salvation; what about people who have never heard of jesus and a load of other sticky issues (so hope that's cleared it all up for those of you who were there - questions? no. then i'll continue) everyone else was delighted, but the control freak in me was jittery!
as the conversation was even more waffly and ramble-y than usual i've only included the actual john stuff we did - the (misplaced) account of jesus' dealings with the woman caught in adultery.
previous instalments:
john 7 continues the ominous theme begun in chapter 5. jesus refuses to back down or soften his tone in spite of increasing opposition. is it just me, or is this getting exciting?
download here:
previous instalments:
and
if y'all would like to, y'all can just go right ahead and click on the link below and y'all'll be able to listen right here.
feel free to comment or email if anything you hear makes your brain itch.
as we go through john 6 we notice how much jesus pushes the boundaries of what is acceptable. it is almost as if he is deliberately going out of his way to offend people, willfully treading on what they hold sacred.
this is not the jesus we are normally presented with in the church!
download here:
download john chapter 6 (part 2)
previous instalments:
and
ok, ok, ok you don't have to download. just click on the link below. happy now?!
as always please keep letting me know what you're getting out of the study.
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