Muddling Toward Maturity Blog

VIDEO - OPENING YOUR HEART TO THE GIFTS OF THIS DAY

My thanks to Joyce for this video.  It's worth 6 minutes to view it.

 

MOTHER TERESA: "DO IT ANYWAY"

I was stirred by the following email from a friend.  The verses below reportedly were written on the walls of Mother Teresa's home for children in Calcutta, India. 

People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered;
  . . . Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;
  . . . Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true
enemies;
  . . . Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;
  . . . Be honest and frank anyway.
What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;
  . . . Build anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous,
  . . . Be happy anyway.
The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;
 . . . Do good anyway.
Give the world your best and it may never be enough;
  . . . Give the world your best anyway.
You see, in the final analysis, it is between you and God;
It was never between you and them anyway

For a bit of history on the verses, click here.

MICHAEL NOVAK - THOUGHT FOR THE DAY

Kathryn Jean Lopez interviewed Michael Novak (author of two recent books), who came forth with the thought for the day:

NOVAK: A wise teacher once told our class: Keep a worn journal by the bed, and write in it every night — five minutes, no more — jotting down the most memorable image (or even insight) of the day. Four minutes if you must. But do it. You will be surprised how this will teach you to notice many vivid images each day, and many insights. Only choose one at night, though, “to snatch from the flames.”

WORLDVIEW TRAINING - SUMMIT MINISTRIES

Teenagers need assistance in clear thinking.  Thankfully, a number of worldview programs are now available.  Charles Colson introduces one such program -- Summit Ministries -- with his helpful post:

A few years ago, a teenager named Chris attended a worldview training program run by Summit Ministries. He learned a great deal and had a great time. But by the end of the intensive, two-week program, he was exhausted.

As Chris wrote to John Stonestreet, executive director of Summit, “I had never had to think so hard...before in my life! So I decided I was just going to veg out for the next few days.”

When some friends invited Chris to a movie, he thought it would be a good way to relax and recover from all that hard thinking. They went to see the latest version of War of the Worlds.

But the film wasn’t the mental vacation Chris expected it to be. As he explained in his letter, “Mr. Stonestreet, I tried to veg out during the movie, but I just couldn’t. I am watching it and thinking, ‘Wait a minute, that’s secular humanism, and wait a minute, that’s not true. And, what do they mean by that, and how do they know that’s true!’”

Chris then joked, “I just wanted you to know that you ruined my movie!”

After the film ended, Chris and his friends went out for food and talked about the themes in the movie. His friends were astonished at how much Chris had gotten out of the film. As he told Stonestreet, “They kept asking me, ‘How did you see that? How do you know all that stuff?’ It was a great conversation. And I [learned] I can’t just turn this worldview thing off!”

Good! What a wonderful testimony to the power of worldview training. It’s the kind of training all young people need to undergo, but so often don’t.  (more . . .)

RECENT POSTS FROM DENVER SEMINARY PROFESSOR DOUGLAS GROOTHUIS (A.K.A. "THE CONSTRUCTIVE CURMUDGEON")

-- Groothuis, as many readers know, first achieved name recognition for being one of the first out of the gate evaluating the New Age movement.  He did so with sober, reliable, scholarly, yet readable treatments in such books as  Unmasking the New Age, Confronting the New Age and Jesus in an Age of Controversy, plus his little InterVarsity booklet, Are All Religions One?

A couple of days ago he posted the entirety of his article, "The New Age Jesus," which first appeared in Areopagus Journal (Nov-Dec 2004).   The article comes with footnotes, making it all the more useful.

-- On another post, Groothuis introduces Ian R. Colle (one of Groothuis' students) who published a positive, helpful, substantial (therefore worth reading!) review of  Paul A. Boghossian's Fear of Knowledge: Against Relativism and Constructivism. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. vii + 139 pages, $19.95 paper.   Colle's concludes his review:

Boghossian presents the constructivist/relativist views accurately and fairly and defeats the strongest formulation of their supporting arguments in a way that is easy to follow and understandable to the non-technical reader.  This short book should be required reading for all humanities professors and all who care about presenting sound arguments for a realist epistemology.   Read the entire review.

MEANING IN LIFE

In Shantung Compound: The Story of Men and Women Under Pressure, Langdon Gilkey wrote the following (pp. 193-94),:

Let us take it [meaning in life] to refer simply to a sense of worthful purpose in what we do and the life we lead.  A man possesses a sense of "meaning" when he feels there is a vital connection between the goals he values and the activities and relationships in which he is involved.

Then what he does each day becomes a coherent means to ends he really prizes, his life and work accomplish something of value to him and so "make sense."  Consequently his energies and powers are called forth in creative effort; he is vigorous, hardworking, and, in the good sense of that word, ambitious.  In this sense, meaning in life is the spiritual fuel that drives the human machine.  Without it we are indifferent and bored; there is no ambition to work, we are inspired by no concern or sense of significance, and our powers are unstirred and so lie idle.  Without "meaning" we are undirected and a vulnerable prey to all manner of despair and anxiety, unable to stand firm against any new winds of adversity.  

Me:  Shantung Compound remains one of the top 10 most insightful books I have ever read.  I first read it years ago.  It's the true story of men and women from all walks of life interned in a Japanese prison camp durng World War II.   One won't find a better exposition of "lived" psychology, sociology, philosophy, anthropology and morality anywhere-- better than textbooks!

WHO DESIGNED THE DESIGNER? DOUG GROOTHUIS RESPONDS TO RICHARD DAWKINS

Douglas Groothuis, aka "the Constructive Curmudgeon" and Professor of Philosophy at Denver Seminary writes:

My paper in "Think: Philosophy for Everyone" (a publication of The Royal Institute for Philosophy) is now on line (Spring, 2009 edition, pages 71-81). It is a secular journal, which encourages creative forms for doing philosophy that will reach past the purely academic world. That doesn't mean it is dumbed down. Some very prestigious contributors have been featured. For my paper, I designed a discussion between a Christian, an agnostic, and an atheist partial to Richard Dawkins. (In 2004, I published a paper in Think that featured a posthumous report from Pascal about the errors made in a Think paper criticizing his wager argument.) 

Some days later Groothuis posted  the following:

 John Loftus, host of Debunking Christianity and author of Why I Became an Atheist, kindly asked me if I wished to submit an essay to his blog. I chose a short and fairly popular piece first published at True U called, "Understanding the New Atheism: the Straw God." His fellow atheists have weighed in immediately with more posts that I have time to respond to. So, I encourage some of you apologists to read their responses and to respond in turn: politely and smartly.

Ayn Rand's Novel "Atlas Shrugged" Published 50 Years Ago

** Updated 9/23/07 - Gene Veith adds comments.

There is an atheism that attacks Christianity on the grounds that it is not true. The new atheism, described below, attacks Christianity on the grounds that it is not good. But Rand's atheism, with that of her mentor Nietzsche, is far more devastating, attacking Christianity on the grounds of its strengths. The ethic of "love," they claim, inhibits the natural law of survival of the fittest, making successful people feel guilty, and draining the culture of its strength, with Christian compassion begetting expensive welfare programs, protectionist economic policies, and other misguided attempts to prop up failures, etc., etc. And unlike most atheists, she offers a positive ideology to fill the void she creates.

When I was in high school, a good friend got way into Rand and this kind of thinking. It challenged my then rather minimalistic faith more than anything else. Trying to answer her led me to C. S. Lewis, among other writers, and drove me deeper into Christianity. But it is driving even more away.

 

A reader of Veith's post says:

For a real eye opener go to Booknotes on c-span and see the July of 1989 interview of Nathaniel Branden. He was one of the founders of the self esteem movement in psychology. Branden was part Rand’s inner circle with Greenspan he also was Rand’s consort. It seems Rand’s personal life was nearly as depraved as her philosophy.

Another writes:

Rand did not hate American Christians. Some of her views can be seen here: http://forums.4aynrandfans.com/index.php?s=09ef5a488c877095b98a1e8f212f2dc2&showtopic=4867&st=0&p=42353&#entry42353

I would also suggest that John Piper has some worthwhile things to say about what Miss Rand achieved and where she fell short:
http://www.desiringgod.org/ResourceLibrary/Articles/ByDate/1979/1486_The_Ethics_of_Ayn_Rand/

**
For those of us who have heard of Ayn Rand (1905-1982), but haven't read her books, this New York Times article (9/15/07) will serve as an introduction to her ideas and her influence. One of Rand’s most famous devotees is Alan Greenspan, the former chairman of the Federal Reserve. 

The Wikipedia article is comprehensive and helpful.

Rand was an atheist.  She summarized her philosophy this way:

"My philosophy, in essence, is the concept of man as a heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute."

Whitaker Chambers wrote a classic critique (required reading!) of Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged. He notes that no children appear in this novel saying "the strenuously sterile world of Atlas Shrugged is scarcely a place for children."   Near the end of his review he speaks of

the book's dictatorial tone, which is much its most striking feature. Out of a lifetime of reading, I can recall no other book in which a tone of overriding arrogance was so implacably sustained. Its shrillness is without reprieve. Its dogmatism is

New Book: "Political Teachings of Jesus" is reportedly a stunner

John Podhoretz over at NRO's Corner calls attention, in a most extravagant way, to a new book saying:

Tod Lindberg, the editor of Policy Review, has just published a stunning, eye-opening, and sentence-by-sentence brilliant book called The Political Teachings of Jesus  that is exactly as its title advertises. It is not a tract, nor a polemic, but a study of the political ramifications of Jesus's own words as recorded in the Gospels. It is Lindberg's contention that the Sermon on the Mount, in particular, is the most revolutionary document in the history of the world because it effectively created the notion of equality. You can read the book's close study of the Beatitudes, the opening passage of the Sermon on the Mount, at Policy Review's website. Tod and I studied with Allan Bloom a quarter-century ago at the University of Chicago, and I can't think of higher praise than to say that Bloom (who was a rotten, mean, nasty grader) would have given Tod an A for this. Not even an A-minus.

I am always interested in books that send a man into the stratosphere.  Heaven knows there have been scores of books written on the alleged political teachings of Jesus but this one just might be special.  I like the blurb printed at Amazon.com (emphases are mine):

Since the beginning of the Christian era, people have used the words and ideas of Jesus to justify all manner of political action. Despite these repeated attempts, few have been able to move past the rhetoric and understand the true nature of Jesus's political views.

Now, in The Political Teachings of Jesus, longtime political analyst and commentator Tod Lindberg goes beyond political punditry to address how Jesus's words and teachings—once a radical set of ideas—have come to define our concept of government and our vision for society. With nuanced prose, Lindberg draws a crucial distinction between Christ's religious and political teachings, presenting a detailed discussion of the world transformation that Jesus sought through his words, stories, and sayings.

Guiding readers through the social and political dialogue of the Gospels, Lindberg expertly analyzes how Jesus's principles of universal freedom and equality have combined in our social order to become the unacknowledged bedrock of the modern world. In addition, he offers a provocative look at the role that Jesus's words have played in the formation of the modern democratic ideal, demonstrating how the basic principles of both liberal and conservative thought find common roots in the Christian messiah's words.

Through close reading of the Sermon on the Mount and Jesus's parables, Lindberg offers a sophisticated portrait of Jesus as a teacher of unique insight and perception, one whose political views have transcended time and become essential to the way everyone lives in our society. In an era when people on both sides of the aisle are prone to using Jesus's beliefs for their own ends, The Political Teachings of Jesus is a refreshingly clear-eyed take on our shared concepts of government and society—and their common roots between the covers of the New Testament.

An Amazon reviewer wrote this:

We wouldn't have the country we have today if it were based on any other foundation. Even tho some of the founders, such as Jefferson, were athiests, they were profoundly influenced by the Golden Rule that Jesus taught -- treat others the way we want to be treated. Incidently, as Alli Sina shows in his book, "Understanding Muhhammad," Muslim countries are far different from ours mainly because they are based on the violent and vengeful teachings of Mohhamad.

Me:  That is undoubtedly true.  The great problem we face here in the West is the (false) supposition that the mindset we enjoy is a universal one.  It is not.  It has been nurtured and developed on the foundation and the pervasive influence of Christian thought.  I marvel at the gaping blindspots of the elite opinion makers in the West. 

Relativism on College Campuses is not a Substantive Position by Leftists, It is a Tactic

David French at Phi Beta Cons makes the point well:   

Our colleges are not overrun with either moral or cultural relativism. The problem is the opposite — moral and cultural absolutism that is occasionally so extreme that it would make a Bob Jones theology professor blush.

In a truly morally relativistic environment, there would be great difficulty in getting a straight answer from a professor, diversity dean, or student activist on the morality of same-sex marriage, for example. Or the justice of the Iraq war, or even the worth of Wal-Mart. Instead, does anyone have any doubt what the academic establishment’s answer is to any of the following questions: Was the Iraq war justified? Is consciously race-based affirmative action a proper response to historical injustice? Should achieving “diversity” be a central goal of the academy?

As for cultural relativism, does the academy paint a “warts and all” picture of indigenous cultures? Even the act of equating the Aztecs and Greeks (to take Murray’s example) requires that the academy magnify the flaws of the Greeks and minimize the flaws of the Aztecs, so that the culture that invented democracy is “equated” with a culture organized around human sacrifice on a mass scale. The “western civilization bad, other cultures good” formula of so many lectures and books is anything but relativistic. Simplistic, maybe, but not relativistic.

I routinely receive correspondence from concerned parents who worry about relativism. What they need to understand, however, is that academic relativism is a tactic, not a substantive position. When a student of orthodox faith or a person of traditional belief presents a position, they are often countered with the classic relativistic verbal shrug (i.e. “that may be true for you but not for me”), but when the shoe is on the other foot — when the issue is dear to the heart of the academic — the position could not be more absolute. Insults like “racist” or “sexist” or “homophobe” do not come from relativism, but from absolutism.

(HT: Constitutionally Correct)

N.T. Wright Taken to Task (Rightly) by Professor Gilbert Meilaender for Views on America and Iraq

Bishop N.T. Wright, for whom I have enormous respect as an historian and New Testament scholar, illustrates (sadly!) how true it is that a man speaking authoritatively outside his realm of expertise makes for truly discouraging reading.

Well-known Christian philosopher Gilbert Meilaender (Valparaiso University), takes N.T. Wright to task in the February 2007  First Things journal for showing little depth of understanding or nuance in his pronouncements on geopolitical issues.  It is the more sad because Wright is known for extraordinary thoroughness in Biblical studies.

A link will be forthcoming to Meilaender's article when the February 2007 First Things issue goes online.   [Here it is.] For now, let me just say that Wright faults the United States' Iraq policy in the most strenuous of terms, without benefit of the theological and political seriousness befitting his position.

A few quotes from Meilaender (which in no way does justice to the whole article): 

When one considers the volumes that have been written by political theorists and political scientists on the nature of political institutions, one ought

THE WORKS OF JONATHAN EDWARDS ONLINE

Click here.   This is from the Jonathan Edwards Center at Yale University.  Materials are indexed by date, topics, and Scripture reference.    (HT: Andrew Jackson)