Summer Ramblings: Part 1

It's been a long time since I posted and I know that you all have missed my ramblings greatly. Let me apologize for not posting and offer a few explanations.

1. I have been working like a dog. I don't know how the full time sound guys at our company do it, I fear this summer will be the death of me. But if it doesn't kill me I'll have some good experiences and a life skill in case this ministry things doesn't work out =) .

2. Ding Dong the Houghton Laptop is dead. I would offer a "may it rest in peace" but I'm pretty sure that it is burning in laptop hell because it truly sucked. So yeah, I probably won't be posting with any consistency until I'm able to buy a new laptop. I think I'm going mac so we'll see how that goes.

With that said, on to "Summer Ramblings: Part 1"

I'll try to break things into chunks so that you can skip various parts if you want.

Since I last posted I have finished reading one of the books on my list and started two others not on my list. I have finished "The Final Quest" and have started "One the Incarnation" by St. Athanasius and "Ancient-Future Time" by Robert Webber.

--------------Book Review ------------------

"The Final Quest" is a good book. I would probably describe it as "The Great Divorce" meets "the Lord of the Rings." The imagery is beautiful and it has quite a bit of substance. I really liked it, however, I feel that I can't put the book in the same place in which I gather the author would like the book to be put. In the preface the author notifies the reader that the book is not fiction but rather the transcription of a series of 3 prophetic visions he had. Although he does not claim that this should be taken as Canon he does allude that it should be just a few notches below it on the authoritative ladder.

I have no problem with prophecy nor with visions, but I still feel, after reading the book that it has little more weight to it than Lewis' "The Great Divorce." Although nothing in the book was blatantly heretical, and there wasn't anything that screamed "false teaching" a few things did catch my eye.

If we take the premise that the book is fully prophetic and truly a vision of heaven, then I am completely blown away at the non-Trinitarian nature of heaven and the end times. I am not saying it was anti-Trinitarian, but other than Christ the other two members of the God-head were scarcely mentioned, if at all. This troubled me greatly. He mentioned the Trinity about as much a normal Sunday at a Baptist church (read: not at all). This is problematic because the doctrine of the Trinity is THE foundational doctrine of all of Christianity. If an accurate vision of heaven is that only Christ is around, then we have some deep theological problems. Either we've been believing wrong for about 2,000 years, or the vision is not fully revelatory. I would opt for the latter.

The other thing that caught my attention was the general emphasis of the book. Although many of the things that were written I would agree with, it was evident that the terminology and various emphasizes were from a particular tradition (namely the Pentecostal tradition) this does not make these things any less true or legitimate, but the things that were emphasized and the things that were glossed over definitely pointed out that this was coming through a socio-Pentecostal lens.

So that's my take on the book, it's a good read and it makes some good points. I'm sure those who are big lit buffs (ie. Gustav and the rest of you who can write coherently) would question the literary quality, but hey, I'm a theologian so I don't pay no mind to that.

------End Book Review------

I mentioned the other two books I've started to read, and I won't write long on them except to say that "On the Incarnation" by St. Athanasius is amazing. It is a must read for anyone. It's worth the price just to read the introduction by C.S. Lewis in the interpretation published by St. Vladimir's Press.

-------Experiences from a Sound Guy-------

Although I've been working my tail off at the Sound Company I work for, I've only been at two shows. I've done a lot of work for other shows, but things have come up and I've only been able to make it to two places for the show (granted one was a 3 day long Blue Grass festival). I find it interesting that in both of the shows I've been at I've been engaged in some sort of theological discussion. I'm not the type of person to start a random theological conversations with random people unless I know they're church people who like to talk about stuff like that (or my sister, I just like make her listen to me ramble, it's fun that's not to say that she's not a church person but that she just doesn't like theological conversations), but I have conversations at shows that have been initiated by others.

The first show was a Billy Currington (some country artist) in Lebanon, KY. I was working on the stage with his bass player and we started talking about NY because he just happened to be from Geneva, NY just outside of Rochester. Once he found out that seminary was the reason that I came down south he started asking if we were "liberal" or "conservative" and it turns out that I am just as disgusted with the "religious right" and the "moral majority" as is he. While he can't stand them because of his extreme political views, I can't stand them because they try to label Christianity by their political stances (well that and some of their moral views). We then proceeded to talk about same sex marriage and other social issues. I find it extremely sad that he defines Christianity by politics and groups that try to legislate morality. I fear that to many people outside of the church (and probably inside as well: Jimmy Dobson and the like) Christianity is nothing more than a political force driven by greed and power just as much as any other political force. I find this notion disgusting and am sickened by those in Christendom that play so much politics that they forget was Christianity is truly about.

The second conversation was at the Blue Grass festival (FYI: Blue Grass is freakin sweet!!). The head guy started to engage me because he saw me reading a lot of theological articles while I was babysitting the light board at the show. Our conversation boiled down to the fact that he appreciated Christianity and liked to see young people be committed, but he sees so much power play and greed involved that he can't move past the notion that humans have corrupted this thing and thus it holds little to no truth. All in all this guy was just a regular run of the mill pluralistic deist. I find it interesting how his perspective allows him to love and sing along with the old blue grass gospel songs and yet see no truth in them. I also find it intriguing that he looks at history and sees nothing but corruption and I look at history and see God's preservation of the orthodox faith in spite of the massive corruption.

I know my stories make me sound heartless because I seem to me analyzing them on a purely intellectual level, but my heart really does break for these people. Even more my heart breaks for the thousands like them that know the church as greedy and self idolaterous, people who reject the faith, because the church has allowed herself to become syncritized with the American/world consumer culture and fall away from the faith handed down through the generations.

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There is so much more going through my mind, and I'll try to bum one of my housemates computers to blog about them soon. I'm still working on sorting them out so that there at least coherent enough to blog about. So in the future look for one of these exciting topics:

- My Ecclesiological paradigmatic dilemma
- My church history musings
- Christianity in the South vs Christianity in the North thoughts
- Syncritism and American Christianity
- The "fluffy I" problem in Christian Music and in Worship music.
- another book review (when I finish them)
- more thoughts from work
- or who knows what.

Blessings to you all, and if you are too anxious and can't wait for me to get off my lazy butt and blog then just call my cell.

~Ben