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On October 6, 2018 By In Culture, Politics, Theology, Wisdom

Principalities and Powers, Part II

The Principalities and Powers, Part 2
Guest post by Richard Bledsoe

For Part 1 of this series, click HERE.

The great question for the emerging East, Asia and other awakening third world areas, for an emerging nation like China is, “what fate awaits them?” They are now emerging from an analogous paganism that the West emerged from centuries ago. Here is an amazing quotation from David Aikman, the Time Magazine religious editor. He is a quoting from “a scholar from one of China’s premier academic institutions, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) in Beijing, in 2002.”

 “One of the things we were asked to look into was what accounted for the success, in fact, the pre-eminence of the West all over the world,” he said. “We studied everything we could from the historical, political, economic, and cultural perspective.  At first, we thought it was because you had more powerful guns than we had.  Then we thought it was because you had the best political system. But in the past twenty years, we have realized that the heart of your culture is your religion: Christianity. That is why the West has been so powerful. The Christian moral foundation of social and cultural life was what made possible the emergence of capitalism and then the successful transition to democratic politics. We don’t have any doubt about this.”1

There is a speeding up of history. (more…)

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On September 29, 2018 By In Culture, Men, Politics, Theology, Wisdom

Principalities and Powers, Part I

The Principalities and Powers, Part 1
guest post by Richard Bledsoe 

Paul contends that with the death of Christ on the Cross, there was an overcoming of the Principalities and the Powers (Col. 2:15).  A great deal has been written on this subject over the last 60 years.1 What was for a long time either ignored, or regarded by liberal scholars as a mythological element in his thought, recaptured scholarly imagination after World War II when it seemed brutally and baldly clear that such entities as Paul describes had been let loose on the earth once more in civilization-destroying World Wars. Principalities and Powers are not themselves personal demonic figures, but are rather elements of the creation that in and of themselves bring order, authority, symmetry, and method to the world. Examples of Principalities and Powers would be the state, the family, the clan and tribe, and the nation. In the modern world, new examples of Principalities could be industry and the media. Each of these entities in a fallen creation cease to be subordinate to God as the creator, and attempt to establish their own hegemony and absoluteness. And, in each of these cases, the Principalities are linked to, and become subject to, personal demonic figures. Paul makes clear that in the ancient world, the Principalities were tutors and keepers of the world, and functioned often in a relatively benign way. With the coming of Christ, and with His death and resurrection, the Principalities and Powers are “disarmed and…triumphed over”, and again are called to take their rightful ruling place under the power of the now triumphant King.  While the war has been decisively won, this also initiated new phases of radical rebellion on the part of the Powers, and the church now lives by constant warfare and battle against these Powers through history (Ephesians 6:10-20). There are at least three phases of the conquest of the Principalities and the Powers through history that interest me here. There are many more, but one must necessarily simplify in order to say anything.

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On September 22, 2018 By In Art, Books, Culture, Film, Wisdom

We Don’t Need Another Type of Hero, III

Why We Should Jettison the “Strong Female Character,” Part III
guest post by Alastair Roberts 
Click HERE for part 1 of this series, and HERE for part 2.

The recurring characterization problems with such Strong Female Characters arise in no small measure from the struggle to show that men and women are interchangeable and can compete and cooperate with each other on the same terms. As I have already noted, this falsehood serves no one. It sets women up for frustration and failure as they have to justify their agency on men’s terms and it produces an embarrassment about male strengths that should be celebrated rather than stifled. It reflects a drive towards intense gender integration and de-differentiation in the wider world.

The traditional world of women—typically a different existential and intersubjective mapping of spaces that were shared with men—has been reduced through the migration of work away from the home, the expanding social role of the state and its agencies, the shrinking and contracting of families, the thinning out of neighborhoods, and the removal of much of the burden of domestic labour through technology. One’s value in society has also become increasingly contingent upon advanced educational attainment, career, wealth, and consumption. Within this new situation, women have had to forge new identities within worlds created by men and which play to male strengths. Shrunk to a sentimental reservation of domesticity, there is relatively little dignity to be found in what remains of traditional female worlds in most Western societies.

Often natural differences in tendencies and aptitudes between the sexes (as groups, there is plenty of individual variation and departure from the norm) replicate themselves in the wider economic world. Women are frustrated as their desire to have children and raise families prevents them from earning as much as their male counterparts, or enjoying the same social prominence. Women’s greater natural orientation towards relational and caring activities leads to their underrepresentation within the more lucrative and powerful professions. Women are drawn to subjects and occupations that are more personal, artistic, and relational, while men to those that are more realistic, investigative, and thing-based. Despite the expense of considerable money and effort to change male and female preferences, they are surprisingly resistant to change in many respects.

On men’s part, male dominance in realms of high achievement is frequently and often instinctively characterized as pathological. There is a zero-sum social game being played between the sexes and male privilege is a sign of a great injustice, something about which men should feel guilty. The possibility that men dominate because the realms in which they dominate play to their various strengths as a group or involve areas where they produce the most exceptional performers is not an idea that can be entertained in many quarters.

The push for ‘diversification’ and ‘inclusion’ can be a threat to many male groups because their natural rougher socializing tendencies are stigmatized, they are no longer permitted to play to their strengths, and their shared cultures and cultural products are jeopardized by a sort of gender gentrification imposed upon them. The existence of extreme misogyny in many of their reactions to such developments should not be allowed to disguise the presence of understandable concerns (and definitely vice versa too), even where the appropriate response to these concerns may not be that of wholly rejecting the diversification.

We have moved from a situation with distinct worlds of gendered activity—albeit typically deeply interwoven and involving extensively overlapping spaces—to one in which men and women are being pressed into a single intersubjective and existential world, one that was traditionally male. The result is a stifling of men, as manliness becomes a social threat and male strength a problem to be solved. Male strengths have to be discouraged to give women more scope for expression and achievement. Women, on the other hand, are caught in a world that seems rigged against them. The Strong Female Character is one way in which the anxieties, insecurities, resentments, and embarrassments produced by such a situation register in our imaginary worlds.

It is also a revelation of a failure of imagination. Fictional worlds are places in which we can explore possibilities for identity and agency. The fact that women’s stature as full agents is so consistently treated as contingent upon such things as their physical strength and combat skills, or upon the exaggerated weakness or their one-upping of the men that surround them, is a sign that, even though men may be increasingly stifled within it, women are operating in a realm that plays by men’s rules. The possibility of a world in which women are the weaker sex, yet can still attain to the stature and dignity of full agents and persons—the true counterparts and equals of men—seems to be, for the most part, beyond people’s imaginative grasp. This is a limitation of imagination with painful consequences for the real world, and is one of the causes of the high degree of ressentiment within the feminist movement.

Heroic Women and Good Story Telling

The Bechdel Test originally appeared within the comic strip, Dykes to Watch Out For. It is an informal test to determine whether or not a film passes the lowest bars for the portrayal of women: 1. Does it have at least two women in it? 2. Do the women talk to each other? 3. Do they talk about something other than a man? It is a helpful heuristic tool for alerting people to the degree to which women and their intersubjective worlds fail to appear within the frame of so many movies and works of fiction. It is far from scientific, nor is it an accurate tool for determining the existence of stunted portrayal of women more generally, but it does often provide an initial indication of limitations or problems.

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On September 3, 2018 By In Wisdom

Why Late Western Christians Need to Know Proverbs

Christians of every age and every circumstance need to know the entire Bible. That’s a given.

But Proverbs could be especially useful to contemporary Christians in the developed world. Here are three reasons why:

1. Proverbs is about masculinity.

Proverbs is for everyone, but it addresses itself explicitly to “my son”–a male somewhere near the threshold of adulthood. It is written to a young man who is strong enough to be an attractive recruit for a gang (he’s got muscles, Proverbs 1) and to be pursued as a diversion by a bored, rich, housewife (Proverbs 7). Proverbs pleads with the son to not forget the way his father and mother have raised him and also to build on that by pursuing Wisdom. Being faithful to one’s wife and embracing Lady Wisdom are presented as the mission of young males.

Proverbs not only opens with this theme in the first book (chapters 1-9), but the last book (Proverbs 31) repeats the theme, spoken by a king’s mother. She begs her son not to degrade himself by excessive wine and loose women. Rather, he should rule well, especially by choosing the right woman to marry. “Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised” (verse 30).

In an age that actively promotes the confusion of genders and invented the term “toxic masculinity,” a book of the Bible aimed at inculcating the art of manliness in young men has great value.

2. Proverbs is about the temptations to decadence that come with prosperity.

We are told that Solomon, at the height of his reign, “made silver as common in Jerusalem as stone” (1 Kings 10:27a). The rise of the monarchy was also a time of real economic change due to God’s blessing. Israel became more prosperous and more urban. Even though Isreal was agrarian by our standards, new ways of making a living in trades in cities would be more available.

So what temptations does Solomon emphasize? “He who gathers in summer is a prudent son, but he who sleeps in harvest is a son who brings shame” (Proverbs 10:5). “Slothfulness casts into a deep sleep, and an idle person will suffer hunger” (Proverbs 19:15). “Love not sleep, lest you come to poverty; open your eyes, and you will have plenty of bread” (Proverbs 20:13). Moses doesn’t say anything about the danger of oversleeping and Solomon can’t shut up about it.

The same is true of alcohol. The “drunkard” is mentioned as a bad person in the Law, but wine and strong drink otherwise have positive connotations. Long warnings about drinking don’t occur in the Bible until the time of Solomon.

Proverbs is written to people who have more wealth around them. Thus it is written to people who are more likely to feel entitled and to grow in vices that will ultimately destroy them. I doubt any farmer allowed his son to sleep during harvest. But in a more prosperous and cosmopolitan environment, it may have been easier for a young man to stay out too late drinking and be late for work the next day. The temptation might be to think there are no serious consequences to worry about, but Proverbs warns that the consequences sneak up on you later.

3. Proverbs is about freedom from your own behavior.

Whether we call them vices, bad habits, addictions, compulsive behaviors, or something else, Proverbs warns about being enslaved to desires and behaviors that will hurt you:

  • “Whoever is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city” (Proverbs 16:32).
  • “A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls” (Proverbs 25:28).
  • “The righteousness of the upright delivers them, but the treacherous are taken captive by their lust” (Proverbs 11:6).
  • “Do not desire her beauty in your heart, and do not let her capture you with her eyelashes” (Proverbs 6:25).
  • “The desire of the sluggard kills him, for his hands refuse to labor” (Proverbs 21:25).
  • “Do not give your strength to women, your ways to those who destroy kings” (Proverbs 31:3).
  • “Make no friendship with a man given to anger, nor go with a wrathful man, lest you learn his ways and entangle yourself in a snare” (Proverbs 22:24–25).
  • “Wine is a mocker, strong drink a brawler, and whoever is led astray by it is not wise” (Proverbs 20:1).

From having a quick temper to being an alcoholic, Proverbs is constantly warning us about using fleeting pleasures to feel better that will undercut our long-term happiness.

You need to wrestle with Proverbs.

Partly that means memorize portions of it. Partly that means read it regularly. But it means more. “It is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out” (Proverbs 25:2). Proverbs is a guide to “the words of the wise and their riddles” (1:6). If a saying seems too simple, you probably aren’t understanding it.

We are told in the Bible that God made Solomon wise. Reading him and others as conveyers of simple moral truths is to obstruct your own ability to understand Proverbs. “Do you see a man who is wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him” (Proverbs 26:12).

Mark Horne is the executive director of Logo Sapiens Communication.

 

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Credit: atirme/Freeimages.com

On July 23, 2018 By In Wisdom

Solomon as Driver’s Ed Teacher

The ability to drive a car is a necessary skill for most people in industrialized countries. As a result, it has become a rite of passage into adulthood.

I’ve taught three children how to drive and every one of them experienced not only changing abilities but expanded knowledge. Shortly before they started driving they showed little awareness of the network of roads and locations around our home, even when traveling on familiar routes to familiar places. I would ask them what direction we were heading or where I should turn, and they usually had no idea.

They were just along for the ride. Since they relied on someone else to drive, they didn’t waste mental capacity on such things.

But when they got behind the steering wheel that changed quickly. Suddenly, the maps inside their heads expanded to include virtually the entire metro area and surrounding counties. Learning to drive gave them a new dominion. They grew in their knowledge to accommodate their new powers for a larger realm. It was a profound transformation. When they took on adult responsibilities they transitioned to adult thinking.

So, let’s think about how a child develops when he learns how to drive. (more…)

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On May 21, 2018 By In Culture, Men, Theology, Wisdom

Suffering Doesn’t Make You Stronger

There is an idea out there that goes something like this: “Hard times produce great men, great men produce good times, good times produce weak men, and weak men produce bad times. Repeat.” While this cycle seems to have some truth in it, this idea is based on a subtle lie.

The lie originates in the pervasive idea that suffering and hardship produces strength. The clichéd phrase that is thrown around is “what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger” and this line has appeared in various movies (e.g. The Dark Knight and Avengers) and songs (e.g. Kelly Clarkson and Kanye West). A cliché is a culture’s catechism and our culture knows this catechism by heart. This idea is also behind much of the #Metoo movement.

The idea that suffering makes you stronger comes from Nietzsche. And just saying that should already cause us to be concerned with the idea. The specific phrase appears in his work Twilight of the Idols, but he talks about the idea in other places, like in his work Beyond Good and Evil. In that work, he says: “Independence is for the very few; it is a privilege of the strong.”[1] This statement is a foundational idea for Nietzsche: true freedom is only for the strong. The natural question that follows then is how does one become strong? Nietzsche cautions his readers that they might not be ready for this: “Something might be true while being harmful and dangerous in the highest degree.”[2] Can you really handle this, he is asking. If you think you can handle this then you need to realize that the true test of one’s spirit is how much of the truth you can endure. The thinking here is that truth is verified by experiencing some great trial or struggle. Nietzsche warns his readers: “You should not dodge one’s tests, though they may be the most dangerous game one could play…”[3] Through your greatest struggles and tests, you become strong.

This is a central idea for Nietzsche. And he is plain wrong.

Now it can seem like he is right. Last time I went through something hard I learned a lot. A key example could be an exam. I sweated my eyeballs out and I learned a lot. See Nietzsche is right, right? Nope, he’s still wrong.

The reality is that suffering and tests are not in themselves good or bad. It really depends on the person. As a teacher, I see this in my students all the time. One student takes an exam and he works really hard and he learns a lot. Good job. Another student takes the same exam and doesn’t work hard. He struggles terribly through the exam and he didn’t learn a thing. Is he stronger? Not really.  (more…)

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On May 19, 2018 By In Scribblings, Theology, Wisdom, Worship

The Impracticality of Application

Guest post by Remy Wilkins
Remy is a teacher at Geneva Academy.
His first novel Strays is available from Canon Press

I have never heard anyone say that the Bible is impractical, but I have heard people, after an in depth exegesis of a passage, ask for the practical application. Offer a class on childrearing, marriage, finance and the church members flock to it; offer a course on Leviticus, the visions of Elijah, the importance of the periphrastic participle in the writings of St. John, and you get the weird guy and the retired couple. The church tacitly views great swaths of Scripture as tertial; what good does knowing the furniture of the temple have when the children are screaming, dinner needs fixing, and the job runneth overtime? Getting out in the tall grass of the Bible is fine if you’ve got the time, but who has the time? We need our Biblical tips and techniques in easy and digestible portions. At the heart of this complaint is the idea that the Word of God isn’t clear and that it requires esoteric skills and the free time of an eremitic monk in order to understand.

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On March 10, 2018 By In Culture, Family and Children, Politics, Pro-Life, Theology, Wisdom

On Abortion and Real Love

MargaretAnn Leithart volunteers at the North Jefferson Women’s Center in Fultondale, Alabama. This essay is dedicaed to the Center’s Director, Julie McLendon. This article originally appeared at Theopolis

I have the privilege of being able to counsel a lot of women who are seeking abortions. I can tell you that the majority of them are seeking to end their pregnancies not because they feel like it would be a fun thing to do, but because they are scared out of their minds and feel that they have no other option.

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On March 3, 2018 By In Culture, Family and Children, Theology, Wisdom

The Doctor Is In

Alastair Roberts (PhD, Durham) is one of the participants in the Mere Fidelity podcast and is also the contributing editor of the Politics of Scripture series on the Political Theology Today blog. He blogs at Alastair’s Adversaria and tweets using @zugzwanged. This post was originally posted on his blog and reposted at Theopolis as ‘What Pastors Could Learn From Jordan Peterson’

Last night, along with a few online friends, I watched this debate on the meaning of life between William Lane Craig, Rebecca Goldstein, and Jordan Peterson, hosted by Wycliffe College. While watching it, and reflecting upon Peterson’s work more generally (about which I’ve written in the past), I was struck by some of the lessons that preachers can learn from Peterson. (more…)

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On February 12, 2018 By In Family and Children, Wisdom, Worship

Some Thoughts on Lent & Fasting

Every year around this time the internet is flooded with essays and interviews concerning Lent: Should we observe it? If we observe it, how should we observe it? And so on. Good folks disagree about these issues. But it is a good discussion to be having. I thought I’d chime in on the issue. Hopefully, I can help keep people thinking through the issue.

First, let me clear some ground here. I agree with many of my brothers who despise some of the Lenten practices. There are people who have superstitious views of the imposition of ashes on Ash Wednesday, for instance. Here in Louisville, KY, we even had one church who set up shop in a local business so that you can get your ashes to go. This was a one-stop shop for groceries and a dose of humility and repentance. People who do this sort of thing are, in most cases, viewing the imposition of ashes as some type of talisman that is going to keep God off their backs for a little while longer. I have witnessed people through the years from many branches of the Christian church act as if the religious ritual itself (whether it is the imposition of ashes, fasting, attending worship, going to revival services, or whatever) was an end in itself. After you do the deed, then you are free to live any way you want outside of the time of that special rite. According to what God said through the prophet Isaiah in his opening salvo, he has never taken kindly to superstitious views of religious rituals (cf. Isa 1.10-20. Mind you, the rituals that God is condemning in Isaiah are the ones that he himself set up. These were not manmade rituals. These were God’s own rituals that were being abused by superstitious views.) Superstitious views of the imposition of ashes or even fasting have no place in the Christian Faith. (more…)

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