Posted on Thursday, April 5th, 2007 at 12:46 pm
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Is this a problem or a wonderful thing?
On a typical Sunday morning, 61% of U.S. church pews are occupied by women and 39% men. That translates to 13 million more women than men, with nearly a fourth of married women worshiping without their husbands. For midweek activities the ratio is 70% to 80% female.
Lima News 2/10/07
While it is wonderful that mothers are bringing children to church, how is the church failing the males? Is it in the preaching? The Singing? The Fellowship? Let me hear from you and then I will chime in. I will start out by saying that I would rather die than go to a place that makes me hug other people! Maybe it’s that old homophobia kicking up on me, but a line from the Adam’s Family movie works well here, “We’re Adams, we don’t hug.” What about you?
Posted on Tuesday, March 6th, 2007 at 12:34 pm
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Dan Kimbal in his book They Like Jesus But Not the Church, posits the six most common perceptions of the Church among post-Christian 20- and 30-somethings. These are:
1) The Church is an organized religion with a political agenda.
2) The Church is judgmental and negative.
3) The Church is dominated by males and oppresses females.
4) The Church is homophobic.
5) The Church arrogantly claims all other religions are wrong.
6) The Church is full of fundamentalists who take the whole Bible literally.
While your first reaction may be one of defensiveness, it is important that church leaders think about these ideas and learn to cultivate friendships outside of the circle of our church. If we are to be like Jesus, whom these people think very fondly of, then we must learn to go among those that are not like us and teach them who Jesus really was. For more thoughts by Kimball see http://www.sermoncentral.com/article.asp?article=a-Dan_Kimball_03_05_07
Posted on Saturday, February 17th, 2007 at 1:19 pm
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Check out this site for some wonderful work on the Inferno
http://danteworlds.laits.utexas.edu/utopia/index2.html
Posted on Sunday, January 14th, 2007 at 7:01 pm
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A new movie raises some important questions for me. The move is “Children of Men� (rated R for language and violence). It is based on a novel by PD James called The Children of Men (why the makers of the movie felt the need to drop off the article, I could not tell you). The significant plot line of the movie and the book is that mankind has become infertile and children have stopped being born.
With the end of births, comes the end of hope. Both the movie and James’ (who is a Christian) novel are dystopian. My Greek students will remember that “utopia� was a word coined by John S. Mill, to mean the best possible world. The word in the Greek (ou and topos) means literally “no place.� J. S. Mill also coined the word dystopia (dus and topos) to mean bad or evil place. A bad and evil place is certainly what the earth has become in the years following the infertility. The world without births is dark and dreadful. Many civil governments have broken down and in England those who continue to live, trade freedom for safety and what is left of the enjoyment of life.
What is interesting in the book, but does not appear in the movie, is the way that humans attempt to keep the rites of childbirth alive even though there are no children being born. Very expensive dolls (a new one every six months) become the rage for those who can afford it. The dolls are taken around in strollers and commented on by passers by.
Even stranger, some transfer these rites to animals. Priests begin to baptize infant kittens and puppies; parties are held for newborn kittens, accompanied by champaign and the best wine. After all there is no point is saving the wine, in another fifty or sixty years there will be no-one left to drink it.
What struck me about this as I was reading, and what was so powerfully portrayed by the movie was how often we take fertility for granted until it is taken away from us. The couple who has just found out that they will never be able to have children think with longing about the maternity ward at the hospital. It is as if the movie has turned us all into that couple for two hours and reminded us that the fertility of mankind is not in the end, based upon rhythms, pills, or other methods. In the end fertility is based upon the will of God.
It did give me pause to think: If tomorrow I found out that there would be no more children born, ever, what would be important? These are the kinds of questions that movies or books from our culture can cause us to ask and more importantly cause others to ask, opening a dialogue about the gospel and the answers that Jesus has. How will we answer those questions?
Tomorrow: The rest of the story. While the movie hints at the loss felt by mankind when no children are born, it makes very clear what the real answer is. That answer tomorrow on Martin Luther King day.
DrSamLam
Posted on Saturday, January 13th, 2007 at 7:27 pm
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In the circles in which I find myself, I hear a great deal of talk about Christianity and culture. One of the questions that always comes to mind after hearing these kind of comments is “Exactly what is ‘culture’?� The term is thrown around as if it is self-defining and I am afraid that it is not.
Of course the second question that arises is “How does a Christian, or should a Christian even attempt, to change culture?� There have been three basic answers to this question. The first is that Christians should stay away from those who are not like them. This is captured in the Fundamentalism that I grew up in. Christianity was seen as a sort of “castle� that you could retreat into to get away from “the world� and the things that we all needed to be “separate from.�
The second answer to the question of the Christian and culture was that the believer should embrace culture. That is, don’t call anyone to task for moral or societal evils, don’t get involved in the moral issues of the day because, after all, there is a “wall between church and state.� Just live and let live and try to change no-one. This is seen in the liberalism of the 1960’s in mainline denominations.
The third answer to this question of what a follower of Jesus was to do in current culture rests between the first and third. This is the answer of transforming culture. That is that the follower of Christ has been commanded to change his own habits, through the power of God, but to help change the entire world. Those who hold to this position believe that Christianity is very helpful for governments and leaders. This change however, must come not by force, but by grace.
There have been good, well meaning men on the side of all three of these positions. The real question is not what have others said, but what does God say? I will leave that up to you for a few days.
Two questions for you to respond with your thoughts, comments, questions, and analysis:
1. What is culture?
2. How should the believer engage culture?
Let me hear from you and then I will tell you where I am in all of this and offer a few books that have been helpful to me on the subject.
Think well,
DrSamLam
Posted on Friday, January 5th, 2007 at 1:53 pm
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Christianity and Culture 501 Knox Theological Seminary
Dr. Samuel Lamerson Spring 2007
Class 6:10-9:00 P.M. Mondays
E-mail
The Effects of Sin on the Soul & on Culture
This course continues the “Great Conversation� of the Western Tradition in antiquity by focusing on the nature of the soul: the effects of sin and the possibility of redemption. We will introduce the literary genre theory of the soul, first articulated by Aristotle in the Poetics. We will explore the terrain of tragedy as an outworking of the fall. We also consider comedy as reflecting the possibility of redemption. Augustine’s vision of the soul and its redemption will be noted in his Confessions. We will deepen our familiarity with Plato through the Apology of Socrates in order to consider the role of the philosopher in the project of civic redemption. The greatest attention, however, will be given to Aristotle’s discussion of the nature of the soul in the Ethics, and the cure of the soul, discussed in the Politics.
Texts to purchase:
The Bible, New American Standard (please always bring your Bible to class)
Augustine’s Confessions
Aristotle’s Poetics
Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics
Aristotle’s Politics
Aristotle’s Rhetoric
4 Texts on Socrates
Greek Tragedies Volume 1
Greek Tragedies Volume 3
Requirements and Grading:
The student will be asked to keep precise records of all reading assignments and their dates of completion. Assignments read before class will be given full credit. Assignments read after class discussion will be given half credit. At the end of the semester, the student will be asked to provide the professor with a percentage of all reading completed as assigned for the semester. All readings will be based on the honor system. The final comprehensive reading completion number will count 50% of the student’s grade. A comprehensive final examination will constitute the remaining 50%.
All excused absences (as permitted in the catalogue) are given with the understanding that the video/audio tape of the class missed will be reviewed prior to the next class period. A written report that the class has been reviewed on tape is required before the next scheduled class.
The student is also advised that for graduation from the MACC program, the catalogue requires proof of attendance at one of the Reclaiming America conferences held annually at Coral Ridge Presbyterian Church. Please contact the Center at 954 968 6729. Mention that you are a student at Knox Seminary for all applicable student discounts.
Schedule of Readings:
N.B. The introductory essay by Louise Cowan and the Prometheus by Aeschylus should be read before the first class.
The_Comic_Terrain.pdf
1. Louise Cowan’s “The Terrain of Comedy� (Handout); Aeschylus’s Prometheus
2. Sophocles’ Oedipus the King; Aristotle’s Poetics
3. Aristophanes’ Clouds; Plato’s Apology
4. Euripedes’ Hippolytus and The Bacchae
5. Aristotle’s Ethics, Books 1-4
6. Aristotle’s Ethics, Books 5-7
7. Aristotle’s Ethics, Books 8-10
8. Aristotle’s Politics, Books 1-3
9. Aristotle’s Politics, Books 6-8
10. Aristotle’s Rhetoric, Chapter 1.1-1.8; Chapter 3.1-3.19
11. Augustine’s Confessions, Books 1-5
12. Augustine’s Confessions, Books 6-10
13. Augustine’s Confessions, Books 11-13
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