You have to be kidding me...

This website is ridiculous. Plough Publishers gives away all their books for free as pdf downloads. You are probably asking yourself, "Which of these books should I download?" The answer is all of them. But if you do not want to download them all, I would download all the books by either of the Blumhardts. Johann Christoph Blumhardt was a late 19th, early 20th century pastor, politician, preacher, evangelist, faith-healer, and theologian from southern Germany. "Why should I care about this Blumhardt fellow?" is the question you should probably be asking yourself at this point. Have you ever heard of Karl Barth, maybe Dietrich Bonhoeffer, surely Jurgen Moltmann? What do these three theologians have in common? Well, besides their German heritage and prominence as theologians, each of these three were deeply influenced by the life and work of both Johann and Christoph Blumhardt. Enjoy my friends!

God and Guinness

This looks like a fun read for a religionist and home brewer such as myself!

Here I come again

I have decided to start blogging again. I will be blogging about theology, movies, and school. That is the goal. Please feel free to interact.

Let me begin by saying that I find conservative evangelical psuedo-theological discourse to be completely bankrupt and quite absent of any constructive and therefore liberative meaning. When I speak of conservative evangelicalism, I have in mind my alma mater Biola University in mind. Proponents of this tradition represent nothing more than a history of muddled anti-intellectualism, chauvinist imperialism, and ideological intolerance. This tradition claims to seek after God, but has found only its backward self.

Some Black Eschatology

"Black theology does not scorn Christian hope; it affirms it. It believes that, when Christians really believe in the resurrection of Christ and take seriously the promise revealed through him, they cannot be satisfied with the present world as it is. The past reality of the resurrection and the future of God disclosed through it make Christians restless with regard to the imperfections of the present. It is not possible to know what the world can and ought to be and still be content with the excuses for the desolation of human beings. Christians must fight against evil, for not to fight, not to do everything they can for their neighbor's pain, is to deny the resurrection."

-James Cone, A Black Theology of Liberation, 140

On Speech and Silence

"The assigned purpose of our words, in unity with the word of God, is to express the real, as it exists in God; and the assigned purpose of our silence is to signify the limit which is imposed upon our words by the real as it exists in God."

-Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Ethics, 332.


This short essay by Bonhoeffer on "Telling the Truth" in his Ethics was a very encouraging and insightful read. It is only 9 pages long so I would recommend picking up the book from the library and reading through this short little chapter.

A Quote From Some of My Reading...

"He who has thought most deeply, loves most vigorously."

In other words, the telos of an academic life must be love.

Apologetics as Refutation of Faith

It is completely asinine, in my opinion, for Christians to debate the question of the existence of God. To even begin to engage in such a discourse is to undermine a central assertion of Christian theology. God’s existence is a matter of faith. Faith cannot be proven or even believed but only experienced as an encounter with the immanent Other. So much intellectual time and effort is wasted by certain segments of the Church on the counter productive task of apologetics. Instead of refuting faith through our efforts to transform faith into knowledge, we should instead pour efforts into practices and notions that foster encounter with the just Other in the world.

Back

I am going to try and blog again. All previous attempts have been more or less failures, thus we should all probably expect the same again. Nonetheless, I am going to give it one more shot.

I just finished reading James Cone’s Black Theology and Black Power. This text was a seminal work in establishing the academic discourse known as Black Theology. I am currently on a quest to complete an exhaustive reading of the Conian corpus, hopefully completing a large chunk of this project during this spring quarter.

Let me offer a brief reflection in response to this text. The central contention of this book is that Black Power is God’s central message to 20th century America. This contention is unfolded through out the book. The crux of the argument is that Black Power is that movement which is speaking both to and for poor black people. In other words, Black Power is clearly on the side of the oppressed.

An important caveat on Cone’s understanding of blackness will be helpful for those not familiar with Cone. Blackness moves beyond skin pigmentation in Cone’s thought. Blackness functions as a symbol for the oppressed peoples and classes in America. This is intelligible because of the deep history of black suffering and oppression within American history. The Black community has historically been the oppressed and the suffering group, and thus blackness is an appropriate contextualized way of speaking about the American poor and oppressed.

An important aspect of Cone’s central contention, which struck me, was his willingness to identify God, in a very specific way, with a social/political movement such as Black Power. The theological basis for this implication of God in political struggle is rooted in the theological affirmation of the transcendence of God. In the past, I have taken this theological foundation to mean that God stays above the fray of the dominant political discourse, and instead embodies himself within the church community creating an alternative body politic. This becomes problematic because it creates a massive void within a world characterized by deep injustice and slavery. From the perspective of those outside of the Christian community an ominous silence is all that can be heard. And silence is the close friend of injustice. Thus a politic which stands over and against the dominant political discourse must in fact manifest itself within the dominant discourse as a voice of resistance. NO, NO, NO should be constantly heard from an appropriately Christian political stance. These loud and adamant “no’s” can only ever be heard from within the context of the dominant discourse.

Thus, in order for the transcendent God to truly stand over and against the dominant political structures in America, which purvey violence, injustice, and slavery, that God must enter into the depths of the struggle against the dominant political structures, represented in movements such as the Black Power movement. Retreat to the church is not an option. God is in the world and that is precisely the place to which we are called. God is before us in the world, not behind us in the church. Let us press on!

Questions and a Project

Questions regarding the theological task as a whole have been piquing my interest as of recent. I was wrestling with these questions on my drive to Downey from Pasadena this evening. Let me open up the barrage of questions that assaulted my mind. What is the theological task? What form does it take? Is theology art? If this is the case, what is art? Does theology have any room for the transcendent? Is theology concerned with an object or a subject? Is theology science? Is theology history? How does theology interact with other areas of public discourse? What does a public theology look like? There were more, they came like a whirlwind, leaving only mental rubble in their wake. I was left a little bit disturbed after this thought event, yet also a glitter of optimism remained. I am going to attempt to use this blog as an avenue for beginning to sort out my thoughts on theology. I am pretty convinced that I need to begin the process of articulating some of my theological ruminations. I thought seminary would give me a space for this, but looking back on this first quarter alas it did not. Maybe in the future it will, but for now I hope this blog will create a space for me to begin developing my theology.

Here is a thought for the road: Is theology as conceived by most simply exercises in Eurocentric, esoteric, uninteresting, pretentious blather that has nothing to say to the world? Can theologians (or philosophers for that matter) really claim to be the architects of the conceptual worlds?

The Light is On

So, an interesting occurrence has transpired at the Camp/Trainor residence. Our porch light refuses to turn off. Truly an enigma! The light is always on... even when no one is home...

Show Recap

Yesterday, I went to see the Flobots and Matisyahu. Flobots were amazing! They sounded great live and put on a solid show. Not much flash, just a solid performance. Matisyahu was an interesting experience. He played for almost two hours, which was actually a little much. It turned out to be, more or less, one big continuous jam session. After the show ended, I was happy with all that had transpired and decided two things (1) that I have had my fix of Matisyahu and can move on and (2) I can't wait for the next Flobots album.

Two Things

(1) Matisyahu and Flobots in a matter of a few hours! I will have a post about the show tomorrow

(2) Theological Thought of the Day (Maybe I am going to try to start doing this more)

Theology is not an intellectual project in the sense that intellectual projects are undertaken by individuals. If an intellectual endeavor ever becomes the end of theology, we certainly have idolatry of the conceptual nature. Instead theology must be reconcieved as a communal event in which God inhabits our language in love which brings others together. Thus, theological enterprise must be dialogical in nature due to its necessary communal aspect. This approach is productive because it always holds any theological conclusion in the air, because there are no such thing as a theological conclusions. If theological ends or conclusions are ever reached then we have only ended with an idol. Let us seek to engage in the event of theological discourse in love amongst friends.

Big Week!

Events for Monday through Friday:

Monday- Paper Due/Bowling? (if time permits)
Tuesday- Work on Paper for Wednesday / Purchase Dustin Kensrue's latest album
Wednesday- Paper Due
Thursday- Sub / Work on Paper due next Wednesday / Go to the Flobots/Matisyahu Concert*
Friday- Sub / Work on Paper / Hang out with my future wife*

As you can see this is going to be a busy week for me. Hands down the highlight is going to be experiencing the Flobots/Matisyahu Concert!! I am extremely excited for this event. I have not been to a concert of this proportion in a number of years. Over the past few years the only shows I have been to have been either Shane and Shane or Derek Webb. Expect a blog recapping the event on Thursday night or Friday morning.

*Subbing will have to be cut one of these days

Articulating the Soul

This book has been articulating the thoughts of my mind and feelings of my soul. I would highly recommend that you buy it and read it as soon as possible. I would love to dialogue with some of my friends about the theology of this book. It is a short and fairly easy read. Let me know who is in to read it.

New Dustin Kensrue

Dustin Kensrue has a new Christmas album coming out on November 18th. Currently he is releasing one new track a day at his website leading up to the release of the album. (Click on the ornaments hanging on the wreath to hear different songs.) I loved Dustin's last album and what I have heard so far from the Christmas album has been delightful. So go check it out, let me know what you think, and then buy the album from iTunes next Tuesday.

Hilarious Good Samaritan Video

H/T: Tony Jones

Education and Eschatology

As some of you may know, I am a substitute teacher. Along with substitute teaching one of my weekly activities is working with the Junior High group at my church, Action Company. Every now and again, I will substitute in a Junior High class. This past Friday, I subbed for a 6th grade English class. This was only my second time back to the classroom for the 2008-2009 school year. Well, this experience prompted me to start thinking about the needs of Junior High students. I wonder how might a teacher inspire these youths to robust human flourishing? Being a theologian by trade, I have concluded that the place teachers must begin with is eschatology. What do you mean by eschatology is what you are probably wondering? What I am trying to get at is that most of these students have either no vision for the future or one that is severely truncated, seeing as it is most certainly formed by the pop media culture we raise our youth on. This is an utter and complete travesty. What students need to counter the banal narratives they drink in from the T.V., radio, and Internet is a robust eschatology – a deep, real vision of possibilities held by the future. They need to see that there is a future that is possible, which challenges the status quo of their lives. What has been need not be! This is what an eschatological vision offers to these young people. How might we, as educators, begin to offer young people an alternative eschatology? (This is an important question that needs to be wrestled with by all Junior High teachers. I only offer a few suggestions at this point.) I think this can happen in a number of ways. First, we must name the narratives our students are receiving for the scripts that they are. In naming these narratives as scripts, we can then show them that multiple scripts are on offer. The script offered by MTV is not the only one available. Second, we need to be storytellers, purveyors of alternative narratives for young people to embrace and live within. This can take a number of forms. It can be through pedagogical methods, lesson structures, and the texts offered to the students. Third, educators must exhibit the influence of a robust eschatology within their own lives. If we have no alternative eschatology ourselves, then our teaching will certainly be hallow and unconvincing. Educators must speak and live prophetically against the status quo. They must not simply be cogs in the wheels of the dominant culture pushing America along. These are a few suggestions, which deem more conversation.

I want to make one more point about this whole issue of eschatology and youth education. Central to eschatology is imagination. Eschatology beckons us into the future and in doing this opens up new vistas on the future. While eschatology is the end, imagination is the means to the end, the key that opens the door to the future, so to speak. If imagination is intimately related to eschatology then it is young people, those who have not yet had their imaginations domesticated and solidified who have the greatest opportunity to embrace a robust eschatological vision for the future. Thus it seems Junior High is the most opportune and crucial time for offering radical eschatology to persons.

Political Rhetoric

Here is a quick observation about campaign rhetoric: religious language has been key for both sides of the presidential campaign. The Obama campaign has been trying to purvey Barack as the last great hope for the nation. If I do remember correctly, I think Christian theology has something to say about hope for the world? On the other side of the aisle, McCain has spent time urging voters to commit themselves to a greater cause outside of themselves. He hops that voters will accept into their hearts the transcendent cause of creating a world marked by democracy and freedom. If my memory serves me correctly Christian theology is deeply concerned with the transcendent, eschatological, and commitment. The problem I see with both campaigns rhetoric is that they seem to be substituting the language of the Church and Christ with that of the Polis and and Candidate.

Politics!

I hope to start blogging about politics soon. I have been doing a lot of thinking about this issue recently, something that generally happens each time an election roles around. I have caught some of the DNC when I have had a spare minute over the past few days. So be on the lookout for this, and hopefully we can get some helpful conversation going on this issue. In the meantime, I highly recommend that you check out Halden's blog where he has had some stellar blogs about politics as of recent.

Wedding!

Here is an excerpt from the wedding homily I recently preached:

Second, marriage takes an exercise of the imagination. At this point you might be thinking to yourself: Ben when are you going to get to the practical advice. You know the stuff about the man’s innate right to the T.V. remote and the woman’s right to make the man watch chick flicks. I am sorry to disappoint you but no such cheesy and boring advice is coming from my lips today. But…while I shall avoid the trite and the trivial, I do not intend to leave the practical completely forgotten, like dust swept away under the rug. No, this second reflection is deeply and profoundly practical. It’s practicality being anchored in its necessity as a component to marriage if the goal of a life-long monogamous relationship marked by fidelity, trust, and submission is ever to be achieved. And that is what marriage is – a life-long monogamous relationship marked by fidelity, trust, and submission. American culture scoffs at this sort of language. Life-long and monogamous? … surely not. I am bound to get tired of the same thing. I need to have the latest toys. The old and the same simply will not suffice. Fidelity…a myth, come on our former president cannot even handle this responsibility. Trust…how can anybody be trusted when all we get is spin from the news and image from the cult of celebrity. Submission…submission is nothing more than invitation, an invitation to get walked on like a doormat. No relationships are about power, pleasure, and personal gain. That is just how the world works. It is in the face of this script – a script that we all consume everyday – that your marriage must raise its fist in defiance. The only way to resist is to imagine. Our imaginations are the mechanism by which we are able to transcend our mundane realty. Imagination has the power to take us places. Thus you must let your imagination take you, take you all the way to end, to the end of a beautiful marriage and life spent together. You must create a world with your imaginations, a world marked by fidelity, trust, and submission to one another. A world in which you live out your years whatever they may be in a life-long monogamous commitment to one another. While this is a world that is imagined, it is no fantasy world, but instead a vision. It is the vision of your life and future together by which you must walk each and everyday together. Your marriage must always be characterized by an exercise of your imagination.