faithasawayoflife

Finishing Wittgenstein's Biography

Last night I finally turned the last page on Ray Monk's monumental biography of Ludwig Wittgenstein: The Duty of Genius. It was touted as a book that finally could hold together his strange and compelling life along with this difficult philosophical work.  That Monk does with brilliance.   Yet the great surprise to me was the way the book read as a spiritual biography, almost a biography of a very troubled saint.  Not of course in any traditional sense of sainthood, but in the sense that, as Monk writes, "in a way that is centrally important but difficult to define, he had lived a devoutly religious life" (580).   As one way to see the sense in which this was true, an anacdote from near the end of his life is telling.  He was in these last months living with his friend and student Elizabeth Anscombe's house in Oxford.  Gravely ill, he asked Anscombe, who was Catholic, if she could find him a priest to speak with--a 'non-philosophical priest' as he put it.  He did not want to discuss the finer points of Catholic doctrine, but rather to be introduced to someone to whose life religious belief had made a practical difference.  Fr. Conrad, a Dominican, came by twice to talk.

Highly recommended book.

Anon, and peace,

Chris

"Joy is the Serious Business of Heaven" C. S. Lewis

I'm so enjoying so much writing about C. S. Lewis.  It turns out one of his less-successful books, written after his beloved wife had died, and near the end of his own life, was Letters to Malcolm: Chiefly on Prayer.  In that book, the last book he completed, might have been less successful because if asks more questions than it answers.  Hard questions, questions that surely arose through the ups and downs of Joy's illness.  An example, one that surely echoes his own anguish, "As for the last dereliction of all, 'My God, my God, why hast thou forsake me?', how can we understand or endure it? Is it that God Himself cannot be Man unless God seems to vanish at his greatest need? And if so, why?"  A sobering and difficult question, one that surely connects to the depths of lament found in Psalms.  And yet, he was also able to envision heaven in rich and compelling terms, as in his sermon 'The Weight of Glory" where he writes that we 'must play. But our merriment must be of that kind (and it is, in fact, the merriest kind) which exists between people who have, from the outset, taken each other seriously--no flippancy, no superiority, no presumption."  Here we find the kind of deeply loving, deeply engaged and respectful sense he had of what it might mean to say, 'Joy is the serious business of heaven.'  A lovely sentiment, and much more substantial than what, as Charles Taylor has suggested in A Secular Age, has come to serve as the common vision of heaven--the endless extension of our earthly preferences, be it perpetually green fairways or reunification with our beloved pets.  No, Lewis sees that the true vision of heaven is something like what our Sunday lesson from Revelation suggests: 7:15 For this reason they are before the throne of God, and worship him day and night within his temple, and the one who is seated on the throne will shelter them. 7:16 They will hunger no more, and thirst no more; the sun will not strike them, nor any scorching heat; 7:17 for the Lamb at the center of the throne will be their shepherd, and he will guide them to springs of the water of life, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes."

Anon and +peace,

Chris

On finishing Broken Hallelujahs, and sort of wishing I didn't have a publisher

It has been a slog get writing done this spring in the midst of teaching, family and now regular preaching and congregational leadership.  But bit by bit I've chipped away at these last chapters and today (or by Saturday at the latest) I'm going to be done, sending the draft off for comment to my editor at Brazos, and moving on to other things for the time being.  After I get his feedback, I'll do a revision of the whole thing (likely in June after school's out) and then it'll disappear into the publishing pipeline to emerge in a year with marketing and distribution behind it.  I really like Brazos, and I am glad that they are publishing the book. It is a great home for the work.  They market well, distribute widely, and show up at academic conferences to promote their line.

Still, inspired by others who've done this, I sort of wish I could just publish the book and make it available via download as an e-book or mail order as a real book.  I've been thinking a lot about a post from Andrew Sullivan on creative types and the internet.  He reflects on the kinds of distribution for musicians and how much artists make in those different modes of distribution.  I think that is pretty interesting, and the link to Kevin Kelly's post on 1000 true fans makes me wonder why go with a traditional publisher at all if what we writers want is to inspire people, to help shape ideas about how we live life, and to make a living?  But would I get tenure in a traditional academic institution if I did a Radiohead-style website download of my new book with a 'pay what you think it is worth' deal?  I get only a buck a book at most from the mainstream publishing process, so even if people only paid $2 I'd double my income and potentially increase sales because of the low cost.  Of course I couldn't sell a print version for $2 because the production does cost something, but at any rate these questions are haunting me as we think about creative new ways to reach and interact with an audience around ideas that matter to us (hint: it is not the books, albums, etc. but the events that allow for personal interaction that are the bread and butter for most creative types). 

Here's a teaser from the conclusion to chapter 5, "Karma and Grace"

The Trouble with Church-Culture Divides

Preparing for Andy Root's tenure review: finally, a meeting that inspires

Listen, academic life is not all a bed of roses.  Admittedly the life has its freedoms and the much-coveted opportunity to take a paid year off every seven years, but all the meetings will kill you with boredom and piles of paper!  This morning, however, I have a real joy: sitting on the faculty review committee for Andy Root's tenure.  It is a joy because Andy is such an incisive and engaged thinker.  He both reads and engages with the best social theorists and theologians, making the case for (youth) ministry at its most compelling. If you haven't yet taken the opportunity to read some of Andy's work, I highly encourage it, beginning with his latests, The Promise of Despair: The Way of the Cross as the Way of the Church.  I'm just finishing it and will both do a bit of review here and join Andy on his BlogTalkRadio in a couple weeks (April 27th).  Feel free to suggest difficult questions I can ask him, either for the tenure review or in our BlogTalkRadio conversation ;-).

Anon, and peace,

Chris

Why Jesus helps us to dismantle atomic bombs, and how the The Two Futures Project (join now!) can help

 

I don't usually post sermons on my blog, mostly because I think they break the genre of a blog post--they are too long and are not meant in their form as blog posts.  But since I started blogging not long after leaving my last regular pastorate, I think one motivation for blogging has been my sermon impulse that has no where to go.  Now that I'm filling in at University Lutheran Church of Hope for a couple months, preaching every week, I realize my sermons have become more like blog posts--I have intended hyperlinks, photos, etc. all that can't really be shared in a typical sermon from the pulpit.  And this is not a high-tech church so no slideware etc. during the services.  That said, I had in mind to post my sermon from yesterday because it is a response to the various dramatic happenings around nuclear weapons going on right now and I just think it is so important.

 

How do you dismantle an atomic bomb?  Or better, how do you dismantle 23, 574 nuclear weapons, each on its own able to destroy the twin cities.

 

Just this past January, you may have heard, Tsutomu Yamaguchi died of stomach cancer at age 93.  Mr. Yamaguchi was a young engineer for Mitsubishi Industries on a business trip to Hiroshima when, on the morning of August 6, 1945, the United States dropped the first atomic bomb, named ‘Little Boy’ on the city. He was more than two miles away from ground zero but still was temporarily blinded, sustained serious burns and a ruptured left eardrum.   Most of the city’s buildings were destroyed and more than 80,000 were killed.   After a night in a bomb shelter, he caught a train back home to Nagasaki where a few days later, while explaining to his disbelieving boss what had happened to him, the US B-29 bomber dropped a second bomb, named ‘Fat Man’ killing an additional 70,000 people.  Most of his office building collapsed in the blast; had he not been behind a steel-reinforced stairway, he might not have lived. Yet he did, recovering and working most of his life, first for the American occupation forces and then again for Mitsubishi.  While his wife and children all suffered from cancer and other health problems, he did not become an activist until late in life.  As part of a documentary film about the so-called “nijyuu hibakusha’, or twice-bombed people, Mr. Yamaguchi finally registered and remains the only official survivor of both blasts. He gave a moving speech at the United Nations in New York in 2006 as the documentary was released, pleading with the audience to fight for the abolition of nuclear weapons. 

 

Excited to see David Bazan at the Turf Club tonight

I've got post-Easter blues, I guess, cause despite all (or perhaps BECAUSE of all) the Jesus-is-victorious-with-lillies-blooming-and-trumpets-playing Easter fullness yesterday, I'm ready today for that reality check Bazan's powerful and searching lyrics offer.  More like Mark's gospel, read at the Vigil Saturday night. The women were terrified and ran away and told no one.  Always pondered that one, and find it captures the awe of REALLY walking into a God-filled moment.  I'll write a report from the concert later this week, complete with notes on the chit-chat if any.  I asked his people for an interview before the show, but after saying they'd check into it, no response. Oh well.

Easter peace,

Chris

An Easter Prayer, An Easter Life

The Easter morning collect I wrote for the liturgy:

God of the Empty Tomb, We no longer look for Jesus among the dead, for he is alive, sharing your merciful and reconciling work in the world. Teach us to live the rise life in Christ, showing the world joy deeper than its sorrow; through Jesus Christ our Savior and Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God now and forever.

Amen.

Happy Easter, all!

Peace,

Chris

PS. painting by Hanna Cheriyan Varghese, Malaysia. More empty tomb art.