Today’s Focal Practice: Walking
As part of the conversation on Living Into Focus: Choosing What Matters In An Age of Distractions at the Patheos Book Club, we asked Arthur Boers to reflect on some specific practices that give him life. First up: walking.
“You walked in this weather?” people often ask me, as if walking is only pleasurable in a congenial climate. Will Ferguson a Canadian humorist once walked 500 miles in Ireland and when he grew frustrated
with the perpetual precipitation, he was often told: “There is no bad weather, only inappropriate clothing.” Or, as I once heard somewhere, only drivers complain about weather. So, yes, chances are I did walk “in this weather,” whether it was hot or cold, dry or wet, sunny or cloudy. Why not? Walking gives me life. (Read the rest at Patheos).
Also, be sure to check out Bruce Epperly’s contribution to the Living Into Focus Roundtable: “Grandpareting as a Focal Spiritual Practice.”
Spirituality and the Awakening Self Giveaway
We are very excited about David Benner’s new Brazos book Spirituality and the Awakening Self: The Sacred Journey of Transformation.
How excited? Well, so excited that we are giving away five copies here on The Brazos Blog.
To enter, fill out the form below.
Winners will be announced on the March 2nd Weekly Hit List.
From Publishers Weekly:
“A challenging multidisciplinary analysis of psychological change and spiritual development. . . . Blending insights from psychology, theology, anthropology, his own clinical practice, and other disciplines, the author suggests that the adventurous journey of the ‘awakening self’ is one of experiencing the possibility of ‘radical’ transformation leading to oneness with God. Throughout the book, stories from the Christian mystics and other spiritual tutors provide a rich array of examples of communion with the divine as the writer presents his vision of the self as it moves from one stage of consciousness to the next. . . . [Readers] will find this profound journey into spiritual and psychological growth provocative, enriching, and full of insights that will stay with them after they have put down the book.”
Video: Peter Enns on Reading the Bible Well
Here is the last of three clips with Peter Enns, author of the just released The Evolution of Adam: What the Bible Does and Doesn’t Say About Human Origins!
The Weekly Hit List: February 17, 2012
Frank Viola posted an interview with Christian Smith about The Bible Made Impossible: Why Biblicism Is Not a Truly Evangelical Reading of Scripture on his blog.
Read the entire interview here.
Rachel Held Evans continued to blog through Smith’s book with a post titled “Is there a difference between a ‘Christian worldview’ and a ‘biblical worldview’?”
Nita Steiner is also blogging through The Bible Made Impossible. Check out her latest post here.
On the “Jesus Creed” blog, RJS posted two entries this week that engaged Peter Enns’s The Evolution of Adam: What the Bible Does and Doesn’t Say about Human Origins:
“YHWH is Creator and Redeemer, But is Adam Israel?”
Living Into Focus Giveaway
Congratulations to Linda Sheppard, Glen McCullough, Dan Brubacher, Wes Horn, and Andrew Keuer!
They have each won a copy of Arthur Boers’s new book Living Into Focus: Choosing What Matters in an Age of Distractions.
Lectionary Reflection for the Last Sunday after the Epiphany
From 1 & 2 Kings (BTCB) by Peter J. Leithart, commenting on 2 Kings 2: 1-12
Starting with Moses, Jesus teaches his disciples that all the Old Testament Scriptures are about the sufferings and glory of Christ (Luke 24: 27). That hermeneutical rule is more obviously applicable to some passages than to others, but there is no problem applying it to 2 Kgs. 2. Elijah is a type of John the Baptist (Matt. 11: 14; Mark 9: 9–13; Luke 1: 17), and the transition from Elijah to Elisha foreshadows the succession from John to Jesus. Like John, Elijah is a lone voice in the wilderness, but Elisha is surrounded by disciples. Jesus’s ministry is a ministry of life-giving miracles—cleansing lepers (Mark 1: 40–45), raising dead sons and restoring them to their mothers (Luke 7: 11–17), relieving distress. Similarly, Elisha raises the dead (2 Kgs. 4: 18–37), provides a meal for one hundred men from twenty loaves of barley bread (4: 42–44), cleanses a leper (2 Kgs. 5). On the surface of things, Elisha is a type of Jesus.
But the typology works another way as well: Elijah is a type of Jesus himself, and Elisha of the disciples who continued Jesus’s ministry after his ascension. Elisha first appears plowing a field, but he leaves home and family (1 Kgs. 19: 19–21) like the disciples of Jesus who leave their fishing boats and tax booths to follow him. At the beginning of 2 Kgs. 2, Elisha doggedly follows his master, refusing to stay behind, until Elijah is taken from him in a whirlwind. Because he follows Elijah, Elisha becomes like his master, and after Elijah departs he immediately begins to replicate his ministry. Having received the promised double portion of Elijah’s spirit, Elisha is a “reincarnation” (or “reanimation”) of Elijah, as the church is the body of Christ in the Spirit of Jesus. The sons of the prophets recognize the family resemblance between Elisha and his predecessor, just as the Jews perceive the courage of Peter and the apostles and remember they have been with Jesus (Acts 4: 13).
From this angle, the Elijah-Elisha narrative directly foreshadows the sequence of the biography of Jesus (Brodie 1999, chap. 5). The Gospels begin with the ministry of the Elijah-like John, who confronts the ambivalent King Herod and his bloodthirsty queen and calls Israel to repentance (Mark 1: 1–8; 6: 14–29). John baptizes Jesus as his successor (Mark 1: 9–11), as Elijah calls Elisha (1 Kgs. 19: 19–21); and Jesus receives the Spirit as he is baptized, as Elisha receives the spirit of Elijah. Jesus announces the destruction of Jerusalem’s temple (Mark 13), and Elisha anoints the temple-destroyer, Jehu (2 Kgs. 9: 1–10). Jesus comes eating and drinking (Luke 7: 34), and Elisha’s ministry is like Jesus’s above all in giving central attention to the gift of food and drink. He heals the deadly waters at Jericho (2 Kgs. 2: 19–22), provides healthy food for the sons of the prophets (4: 38–41), multiplies loaves to feed a multitude (4: 42–44), feeds Aramean soldiers who come to capture him (6: 20–23), and provides food for besieged Samaria (7: 1, 18–20). The Gospels end at an empty tomb, and Elisha’s story ends with his life-giving grave (13: 20–21).
©2006 by Peter J. Leithart. Published by Brazos Press. Unauthorized use of this material without express written permission is strictly prohibited.
Name One Thing That Gives You Life
Today we kick off a two-week feature on Arthur Boer’s Living Into Focus: Choosing What Matters In An Age of Distractions over at Patheos.com in their Book Club Section.
At Patheos you can find an excerpt from the book, author Q&A, and more.
Start by checking out this original article by Boers on “Life-Giving Practices: Identifying What Matters Most.”
Intrigued? Then think about what gives you life, and submit your thoughts (300 to 500 words) to Patheos (books@patheos.com) for possible inclusion on Patheos in their roundtable discussion on this book (and for a chance to get a free book).
A Very Brazos Valentine’s Day
An excerpt from the chapter entitled, “God Does Not Want to Write Your Love Story” (by Margaret Kim Peterson and Dwight N. Peterson):
It might be that what contemporary Christians need is less romance and more love. Christian love is unitive and community-forming; it weaves people together into familial and churchly networks of mutual care and dependence on one another and on God. Husbands and wives, neighbors and friends, children and grandchildren, widows and orphans, all are adopted by God into the household of the church and invited to love and care for one another in ways that certainly include the bond of marriage but also include a range of other human relationships, all of which involve real connection, real intimacy, real enjoyment of other people, a real participation in the redemptive work of God in the world.
©2009 by D. Brent Laytham. Published by Brazos Press. Unauthorized use of this material without express written permission is strictly prohibited.
Video: Peter Enns on Bringing False Expectations to the Text
Here is the second of three clips with Peter Enns, author of the just released The Evolution of Adam: What the Bible Does and Doesn’t Say About Human Origins!
The Weekly Hit List: February 11, 2012
Peter Enns’s new Brazos book The Evolution of Adam: What the Bible Does and Doesn’t Say about Human Origins has received a lot of attention this week. Here are links to some blogs that have engaged with this book:
Ben Irwin’s Blog – Part 1 Part 2
A Biologist’s View of Science & Religion
“RJS” posted two more entries for the “Jesus Creed” Blog:
“What About Enuma Elish and Other ANE Myths?” and “Adam and Atrahasis“
Be Not Afraid: Facing Fear with Faith by Samuel Wells was reviewed by Church Times. The reviewer writes:
“My advice to readers is to take these essays one at a time and let them sink in. They are not the sort of pieces that demand, or even allow of, argumentative analysis — or, at least, not before their point has gone home. I got something from each. I specially profited from “Loving Yourself” and “The Discipline of Joy”. But there is much to value, not least in the biblical expositions, particularly of Old Testament stories.”
Read the entire review here.
Christian Smith’s The Bible Made Impossible was featured in another post by Rachel Held Evans. She writes:
“While Smith does not question the inspiration and authority of Scripture, he questions attempts to reduce the Bible to a ‘blueprint for living’ with a simplistic attitude that begins with, ‘God said it, I believe it, that settles it.’ Instead, Smith argues that ‘Jesus Christ is the true and final Word of God, in relation to whom scripture is God’s secondary, written word of witness and testimony.’”
Her post is called “God Hates Cretans? (and other passages of Scripture we’d rather not talk about)”.
Living Into Focus Book Giveaway
If you haven’t already, be sure to sign up for our latest giveaway – Living Into Focus by Arthur Boers.
From Publishers Weekly:
“Boers offers a needed antidote to the way of life he maintains has hijacked our humanity: technology addiction. A Benedictine oblate, the author summons readers to become intentional about habits that will cost something–write a letter instead a shoot off an email–rather than default continually to the path of least resistance and pick up the TV remote.”
To enter the giveaway, click here.
Blessed and Broken: Lady Gaga and Lucinda Williams (Reflections on Grammy Nominees, Part 3)
We asked Christian Scharen, author of Broken Hallelujahs: Why Popular Music Matters to Those Seeking God, to write a few blog entries reflecting on the Grammy nominations.
This is the third of three posts.
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In this last post anticipating this weekend’s 54th Grammy Awards, I am pulling together an unlikely combination. Lady Gaga, the 26-year-old flamboyant pop juggernaut, set side by side with Lucinda Williams, the 59-year-old gritty Americana icon. What do they have in common? I’ve met the Gospel in their work, for starters. Blessed and broken, you might catch, has Eucharistic echoes. A loaf, taken, blessed, broken, given, as the very body of God, for you. Before you write me off by spraining your eyes from rolling them too high in their sockets, give me a chance to say more.
These two women have, of course, received Grammy nominations. Gaga, already a two-time winner with her first album, has received nods for “Album of the Year” and “Best Pop Vocal Album” (2011‘s Born This Way), as well as “Best Solo Pop Performance” for the song, “Yoü And I”. Williams, also a previous Grammy award winner, has been nominated for “Best Americana Album” for her 10th studio release, Blessed. Neither are, to my knowledge, performing on the Grammy Awards broadcast Sunday evening, but you can see Gaga perform her nominated song, “Yoü and I” with hit country duo Sugarland on the Grammy Award Nomination Concert.
My argument in my book Broken Hallelujahs, in part, is against what I call “checklist Christianity” which holds up a checklist to pop culture with a skeptical eye and rejects anything that contains an offending item (profanity, for example, or references to drugs or sex). I argue, with C.S. Lewis, for a richer Christian imagination informing our engagement with culture. If we begin at the cross of Christ, who was rejected by the religious leaders and crucified “outside the gate” with criminals on his left and right, we know something about the shocking and surprising ways God is at work in the mist of human life for the sake of bringing new life. So I’m not that interested in saying if Gaga or Williams are “Christian” enough or even “safe” enough to be important for Christians or anyone else to pay attention to. I want people to learn and listen so that they can see with a pop song, seeing what can be seen from there.
In a way, “Yoü and I” is song about brokenness and blessing, as is the whole album Born This Way. The song is about love and loss, and the desire for commitment. It is about losing a boy from Nebraska, and then reconnecting with the hope of having it stick. “This time, I’m not leaving without you.” But it is also about deeper claims of allegiance, and how few things really deserve our devotion. Gaga sings, “There’s only three men that I’mma serve my whole life; that’s my daddy, Nebraska, and Jesus Christ.” The song has echoes of Gaga’s namesake band, Queen (It is their song, “Radio Gaga,” that gave her the stage name). The song begins with an echo of the marching drumbeat of Queen’s famous song, “We will Rock You,” and featuring Queen guitarist Brian May. Former Brazos editor, Rodney Clapp, has written a lovely piece arguing something similar to what I’ve said here but in relation to the song, “Born this Way.” One reason for her enormous popularity, I think, is her ability to work the territory between brokenness and blessing, something that drives her huge fan base to find meaning in her performance.
In Lucinda Williams’ new album, Blessed, one finds a remarkably different sonic palate but some resonant themes of blessing in the mist of brokenness. Williams is a Texas country blues singer at heart, and she’s never strayed far from those roots. This album shines in the title song, a poem almost chanted instead of sung. Its gritty couplets echo the paradox at the heart of Christianity, that God should redeem the world by rejection, suffering and death. Some of the incredible lines in the song, starting with the first that steps on my own toes:
“We were blessed by the preacher, who practiced what he preached.”
“We were blessed by the blind man, who could see for miles and miles.”
“We were blessed by the warror, who didn’t need to win.”
“We were blessed by the neglected child, who knew how to forgive.”
The couplets don’t all work for me with the same power, but the overall beauty of the song is that in brokenness, blessing is possible, redemption is possible, life can come from death. Importantly, the refrain is not that the individual receives healing and is personally blessed, but that by living in particular ways within their circumstances, “we were blessed.” The song is a sketch of how we live together, beyond the limits of our pain and sorrow, but without being at all Pollyanna about it. In a moving, but subtle turn, at the heart of the lyric, she turns to the deepest place of this paradoxical logic of blessing:
“We were blessed by the mystic, who turned water into wine.”
“We were blessed by the watchmaker, who gave up his time.”
These, and the following lyrics through the end of the song, seem to be entirely about Jesus. (The famous watchmaker analogy for God, distant and logical, is at play in the second couplet.) The lyric continues with “the wayfaring stranger who knew our names” and “the innocent baby who taught us the truth.” We could have a more powerful pop song about the theology of the cross but I’d be hard pressed to name it. Here’s Williams singing the song in concert.
Another stand-out song on the album, “Seeing Black,” is a lament for Vic Chesnutt, the powerful Athens Georgia singer-songwriter who took his own life in 2009. The song is full of unanswered questions, “was it too much weight riding on your back? When did you start seeing black?” Yet, in keeping with her broken blessing mode, her last verse asks, “When did you start seeing white, tell me what was it like, was it when you received your last rites, when did you start seeing white?” Williams surely knew that Chesnutt was an atheist. And she pronounces her blessing upon him even so.
Thanks for reading the series, and enjoy the show!
-Christian Scharen
Find out more about Broken Hallelujahs in these videos with Christian Scharen:
