Friends Are Good

My 33rd birthday is tomorrow (3 May). However, this morning I received a large care package with lots of goodies, cards, and gifts... and photos of a party some friends held back home in my honor. Absolutely fantastic! What a wonderful present!

The love of friends is real encouragement, and I'm so thankful for it.
I consider it a privilege to be associated with these good folk.

update: this was a very nice gift too --Joe Carter of evangelical outpost and managing editor of World Magazine's blog WorldViews offers his endorsement, saying "Gregory Baus is one of the best popularizers of [Herman Dooyeweerd's] thought *... Baus is wickedly smart and destined to become one of the most influential philosophers in neocalvinism."*

And thanks to Steve Bishop for putting my paper on Dooyeweerd's Societal Sphere Sovereignty into pdf format. Now you can read the footnotes.

another update: It was recently pointed out to me that while this year I turn 33, that Cornelius VanTil (also born 3 May) turns 111, making the distance between CVT and myself the same as between Bilbo and Frodo Baggins. Make of it what you will.

Baus In Berlin

Here are a few photos of me from Easter weekend (click to enlarge). You'll notice it was still a bit cold there.

In this first one I'm at the Schiller monument. I liked this guy behind me at the base more than the statue of Schiller himself. He seems so thoughtful, like maybe he's thinking about how Bernard Lonergan and Herman Dooyeweerd compare on the topic of knowing the Self. Or maybe he's just wondering where he can buy some cigarettes.

Next I'm at the Huguenot Church in Berlin. There were a bunch of people sitting around on either side at cafe tables when I stopped in my tracks and started shouting for Paula to get the camera. My friends asked what was the big deal. I said, "this is Calvin!" And all the people drinking coffee started whispering to each other, as though they were discussing among themselves who in the world Calvin might be and why this American tourist was so excited to be photographed with a plaque of him.


This is at Checkpoint Charlie. Facing east I presume.


This is Hannah Arendt Street, near the stunning Holocaust Memorial, a massive field of granite monoliths.


Here I'm gazing at a bit of the old wall displayed at Potsdamer Platz.


Here I'm fantasizing about the quaint life I never had as an U-bahn kioskman.


This gorgeous Kruezberg district Italian and Arab owned joint was a serendipitous find.


Here I'm at an autobahn exit with a sign to Hannover, the halfway point.


And yes, I did smile during this trip. Quite a bit. Just not in any photos. Sorry.

Easter In Berlin

Three friends, Marthe, Heleen, and Paula, invited me along to Berlin for the weekend. Marthe arranged a ride Friday afternoon from Amsterdam to just south of Berlin, then we hitched into the city and met Heleen and Paula at the Brandenburg Gate around midnight. The hostel at which we hoped to stay was booked up, so we found accommodations elsewhere, but we got in for our final evening and loved it.

If you're ever in Berlin, the Circus at Rosa-Luxemburg Platz is excellent. It's a classy and mature atmosphere. Large, clean, comfortable rooms with a good cafe downstairs. Only 18euro a night. Marthe abandoned us for some other adventure on the second evening, but she footed my entire bill anyway (since I had initially said I couldn't afford to go with).

With Heleen as our guide, we wandered about and saw major landmarks; Checkpoint Charlie, the Reichstag, Potsdamer Platz, etc. I particularly liked the Gendarmenmarkt. (When I get the pictures, I'll post them). I brought my books and did some studying. We even went bowling! One can hardly beat German beer and a game of 10-pins for a good time. I relished the goulash soup, and finally had a decent schnitzel. I didn't get my fill of spaetzle, I'm afraid to say.

We met some very nice people at the hostel and stayed up til early Monday morning playing cards, and billiards, and chatting. Monday early evening Paula and I went out to a gas station in the southwest of Berlin near the autobahn and started thumbing it. We made a sign, and smiled enthusiastically (tips here). Eventually, we were on the road.

We had four rides and it took us 12 hours to get back to Amsterdam. Much thanks to Mike the naturopath, Michel the military helicopter pilot, Gregoire the civil engineering student, and the last gentleman who took us the farthest when our spirits were lowest and whose name I was too exhausted to even ask. You all made my first European hitchhicking experience a blast. And thanks to dear Paula, whose charm and German skills made things go smoothly.

MP3s Blossoming

Though not here in the Netherlands I'm afraid, the T.U.L.I.P.s are ever in bloom.
URCNA blog Semper Reformanda and Sinners&Saints offer podcasts on the basics of a biblical understanding of salvation.

Or you can cut to the chase, and read up on the L.

Gnostics in Bizzaro World
Irenaeus (and DeMar) on the Gospel of Judas

The Gospel of Judas is actually old news. While a Coptic-language version of this 'gospel,' dated around A.D. 300, was found in the Egyptian desert in 1970, Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyons, debunks it in one of his writings around A.D. 180.
Like so much would be scholarship today, liberals are a day late and a dollar short.

Read DeMar's full article here.

Mister Pancake's

Josh stopped by on his way back to the U.S. from Iraq. It was great to see him, and it was fun playing tourist. I continued touring when Keenan arrived. We wore ourselves out walking around and stopping in a different bar every two hours or so. We also enjoyed the Van Gogh Museum, and my new favorite restaurant, Meneer Pannekoek ("Mr. Pancake")... the closest thing to a diner this town's got.

Finally found a copy of Dooyeweerd's The Analogical Concepts in English, thanks to Andrea. I toast to you! We may use it for our next Philosophy Club meeting, and I should probably give a copy to the University library for future generations of Anglophone students. I'm continuing with Lonergan thesis readings. I don't have anything pithy to report just yet, but I'm getting a lot out of it.

Updates (mp3 and CD-ROM links) at The Kuyperian.
The last two installments (13 & 14) in Hart & Muether's Turning Points series are posted.

Thank the Lord, (and McDowell) and congratulations to the Emissary of Swing, brother Gary. He received a two year visa and is now a legal resident! Come visit me, Garçon. I'll take you out to Mr. Pancake.

What Does The Fall Of Man...
have to do with the splitting of the atom?

This week I had a drink at East Of Eden, a Genesis 4:16 - John Steinbeck - James Dean inspired bar near the Tropics Museum. I met a friend of a friend of a friend who works at AMOLF, a research institute for atomic and molecular physics. She's a British Christian who has a strong intuition that, as a whole person, "leaving her faith out of her science" just doesn't make sense. I'm hoping to find adequate Reformational Physics references to recommend.

Fellow Kuyperian, Sander Chan, had me over to his exquisite apartment near the Rembrandt House, also near the little pub in the photo. We watched a "Thai-Western" film: Tears of the Black Tiger. Hilarious. If you can find a copy, watch it. This morning we had breakfast at the end of his block, across from the Amsterdam School of the Arts, Theatre Academy. Coffee at a Cafe on a Saturday morning in the city is so much more vivifying than in ones own lifeless apartment.

addendum: I forgot to mention among everything else under the sun that Sander and I discussed related to Christian Worldview, we talked about nuclear power plants. "I don't see any problem with nuclear power," I said. "Uh... how about a 100,000 year waste management project? I don't see how that is Christianly responsible," Sander replied. So, I'm seriously reconsidering my view on that. Any thoughts?

If you're having trouble reaching me, my internet connection is intermittent recently.

Thesis... And Everything Else

Unfortunately, I've come down with a slight cold again. I'm praying this won't slow me down too much, since I already feel behind schedule.

I'm in full swing with the thesis. At this point it will involve a comparison of the views of Bernard Lonergan and Herman Dooyeweerd concerning "self-understanding." More on that to come, as it's my bread&butter til August. There are many interesting parallels between these two philosophers. Working at the same time, though never directly interacting, they both tried to develop "transcendental-empirical" approaches to knowledge (that is, concerning the necessary conditions for knowledge related to concrete experience) informed by their respective religious convictions. Lonergan was a Jesuit Neothomist, Dooyeweerd a Reformed Neocalvinist. It will make for a very interesting thesis, if I can do it justice.

I recently had the opportunity to visit Rotterdam, Utrecht (shown above), and some other nearby cities. I really enjoyed Utrecht and plan to visit again soon, particularly when my lifelong friend, Keenan, comes to visit in April.

Gearing up for the Reformational Philosophy Club's fourth meeting this Tuesday, it should be a good one. We'll be at deBalie, since vE90 was booked-up that night.

Happy First Birthday to my niece, Lillian.

Happy (belated) St. Patrick's Day to my brother, Gary, and all our Irish and Celtophile friends out there.

The Master Cleanser
a meditation for Unlent

Last month I was washing the dishes after dinner when I heard a knock at the door. I answered it, and there stood my upstairs neighbor, Nick, with his arms full of vegetables and half a block of plastic-wrapped tofu.

"You want these?" he asked.
"Sure," I said "you leaving town for a while?"
"Nope... The Master Cleanser," he said.

I first heard of this detoxification diet some time ago when an old friend told me about it. It became a popular craze in the 70's, especially among newagey types. You might be familiar with some version of it under the name "Lemonade Diet." The basic idea of detoxing is to fast and to only drink certain liquids that will aid your body in flushing out the toxins that it normally stores. There are hundreds of these diets. You can even go on professionally organized detox retreats.

I don't know if such things have been shown to improve health or not. Maybe one day I'll start to feel unhealthy, and look into it. For now, I have to confess that I'm in miraculously good shape for a 33 year old non-exercising, bacon-loving, scotch-drinking, smoker. And, you know, every once in a while a neighbor gives me a carrot and some tofu. So I feel pretty good about my toxin levels.

But chemical toxins aren't the only sort that threaten us mortal beings. There are powerful psychological toxins, for instance. These are much harder to get rid of than chemical ones, but there are self-help books for various emotional toxins too.

The Bible speaks of sin as a kind of toxin, a dark defiling agent that enslaves and kills, worse than any other poisonous addiction. But the Bible is no self-help book. In fact it tells us there's no diet, no methodology, no cure that we can apply ourselves to make us whole, clean, or alive again. We're in dire need of a cleanser that reaches to the depths of our being, but only the Master Himself can apply it to us.

The really interesting thing about this true Master Cleanser is that the cleansing agent He applies to us is... Himself. And once He washes us in Himself, we are definitively cleansed. No matter how much uncleanness we step into or consume, while we have Him (or rather, while He has us) we still remain ultimately clean. And we are miraculously made cleaner and more clean in His continual application of Himself to us by His Spirit, especially in His Word and Sacrament.

Diets can be terribly hard (or, so I've heard). Dieters tell me it's helpful when you diet with others. But with all the self-help material out there, rightly encouraging us to take responsibility for our lives together, the hardest thing might be to admit that we can't help ourselves, or each other, when it comes to ultimately getting rid of sin. Only the Master can eliminate that toxin along with it's deadly effects and addictive power. Thankfully, He is indeed the Master, and His cleansing is irresistible, irreversible, and reaches to the core and totality of our being and community. Thanks be to God through Jesus Christ our Lord!

100% Ash-Free Calvinist

It's that time of year again folks. One of my favorite annual feasts: Unlent. During this time of year we try very hard to practice moderation in moderation. We're extra careful not to give up anything, and to add extra goodies... all for Jesus, of course.

I mean, if you're Lutheran or Anglican or run-of-the-mill cafeteria-gelical... whatever, sure. But professing Presbyterians that observe ecclesiastical calendars, especially ones who have abandoned the Lord's Day as a new covenant sabbath, well, they should just "go the whole way" as some squeamish translators would have Paul say.

Anyway, it's a full-on thunder and lightning snow blizzard right now, and I'm feeling a little energized. Can ya tell?