Windy City

I'm off to Chicago for a week. Expect a full report when I get back.

Hineinlebenshaltung Revisited

Last year, I had the opportunity to take an aesthetics course and to write this essay. I recently reworked it as an article that appears in the latest issue of Catapult (on What's Beautiful). It is also posted within the aesthetic modality discussion on the Dooyeweerd Pages.

I, myself, am not an artist by vocation. But since aesthetics, as a good creation of God, is an integral dimension of life; ubiquitous in human existence, I was anxious to search out the matter theoretically. I hope what I've written is of some use to you.

Fascist Religion

While Qur'anic Islam advocates war with non-Muslims (see 11 Sept post), other religions are intrinsically tied to a specific militaristic nationalism. Recently, there has been a lot of fuss about Japan's Prime Minister's involvement in the revival of Shintoism. It may indeed be that Koizumi was worshipping as a private citizen and not in any capacity as a government official. But given the nature of Shinto as a religion and the history of Japan, there is tremendous reason for concern.

Sadly, John ML Young's superb work, The Two Empires In Japan, on Japanese Christianity and the Church-State conflict is long out of print.

Freelance Worldview Consultant

I heard a report that the U.S. suicide rate is currently double that of homicide (2001 NIMH data). Apparently, suicide has been on the rise.

Now I would venture to say that most of these people probably weren't killing themselves out of some sense of religious zeal. Quite the contrary. I could imagine that among those who gave it serious thought many came to philosophical dead-ends about life.

The New York Times Magazine recently printed a story about a "philosophical counselor." The number of such practitioners is growing. There's an increasing awareness that some of our deepest troubles are not, after all, emotional. Some of them are actually philosophical.

This is reminiscent of my part-time job. Since I never bothered to get business cards, a lot of you don't know that I work as a Worldview Consultant. Of course, it's strictly pro bono at this point. But, somewhere down the road, I hope to develop an online preliminary worldview identification test to draw-in paying consultees.

[You know, several such questionnaires already exist for political ideology. Check them out.]

After one's current basic life-orientation is identified via the worldview test, I devise a more specialized, in-depth list of questions and topics for discussion. Depending on how far a client wants to go, and in which direction, I make particular recommendations for ways that one might continue to live an examined life.

No foolin'.

New Feature

At the bottom of this page, you can now search my blog, thanks to Google's Free Stuff.

Against The Idols

Although I previously posted on worship (29 Sept.) and idolatry (30 July), let me suggest a book on the subject in Reformation history. The author, Carlos M.N. Eire, is himself a Roman Catholic. But unlike so many icon-loving "protestants" today, he seems to understand that being reformed is about biblical purity of worship.

It is available directly from Cambridge University Press, or SWRB (scroll down), or here in the U.S. through The Trinity Foundation. See a review here.

In other news, stop by Catapult magazine and give the latest issue a read, including my blurb about vagrancy. Maybe you'll get to know me a little and find I'm not just a hardened iconoclast.

Why Remember?

Charlie Kaufman is at it again. I recommend that you don't talk to anyone about it beforehand... just go see it. I'm going to see this "not quite psychological thriller, part romantic comedy-of-errors" again soon. Then I'm going to see a doctor and then watch it again for the first time.

St. Paddy's Day Resolution

This year, while donning my orange ribbon, I resolved to renew my subscription to the Nicotine Theological Journal.
I have it on good authority that an NTJ website is planned for sometime in 2008. There is already a facebook group. After more than 10 years in print, it's about time they went digital.

The NTJ is "a quarterly publication dedicated to a full and fiesty exploration of the riches of Old School Presbyterian culture, from helpful hints on how to sanctify the Lord's Day to recommendations regarding the best and most affordable single malt scotches. In the NTJ, you will find out what Presbyterians can't sing and what Presbyterians should smoke. You will read arguments on why confessional subscription still matters, and how it is affected by the political economy."

Send ten dollars U.S. [$10 is the updated 2008 price] to
The NTJ
1167 Kerwood Circle
Oviedo FL 32765
U.S.A.
and request your annual subscription of four edifying issues today! (seriously)

For Tim & Ana

In honor of their wedding, I present a metrical version of the "wedding" psalm 45 --which Ryan and I attempted to sing for Tim. Alternate versions here. Keep in mind that the groom is King and God, that is Christ.


My heart doth overflow; a noble theme I sing.
My tongue's a skillful writer's pen to speak about the King.

More fair than sons of men thy lips with grace o'erflow,
because His blessing evermore did God on Thee bestow.
Thy sword gird on Thy thigh, O Thou supreme in might,
and gird Thyself with majesty and with Thy splendor bright.
To victory ride forth for meekness, truth, and right;
and may Thy right hand teach to Thee the deeds of dreadful might.
Thine arrows sharpened are, men under Thee to bring,
to pierce the heart of enemies who fight against the King.

Thy royal throne, O God, from everlasting is;
a righteous scepter evermore Thy kingdom's scepter is.
Thou righteousness hast loved and wickedness abhorred;
on Thee 'bove all has God, Thy God, the oil of gladness poured.
With casia, aloes, myrrh, Thy robes sweet fragrance had;
from palaces of ivory the sweet harps made Thee glad.
King's daughters are among those who in honor stand.
Thy bride arrayed in Ophir gold there stands at Thy right hand.

O daughter, hear and heed; incline to me thine ear:
"Forget thou now thy people all, thy father's household dear.
Thy beauty to the King shall then delightful be;
because He is thy Lord, do thou to Him bow rev'rently."

The daughter then of Tyre there with a gift shall be,
and all the wealthy of the land will make requests of Thee.
The daughter of the King all glorious waits within;
her lovely gown with threads of gold has interwoven been.
She to the King is led in fine embroidery;
the bridesmaids in her train, her friends, are brought to honor Thee.
Attendants following their joy and gladness bring,
until they all have entered there the palace of the King.

Then in Thy fathers' stead thy children Thou shalt take
and everywhere in all the earth them noble princes make.
Through every coming age I'll make Thy name to live;
the peoples therefore evermore their praise to Thee shall give.

French Critics

Lately I find myself reading two socio-political books authored by Frenchmen. The first is Raymond Aron's The Opium Of The Intellectuals. It was written around 1955 and seems even more relevant to the intellectual scene today. Ideologies rage on in full force.

The second is Jean-Francois Revel's Anti-Americanism (2003). All you leftist critics of U.S. foreign policy really ought to have a look at this one. Revel is not out to vindicate Bush, but rather to examine the nature and motives of the European complaint. I'm finding it all terribly entertaining.

It's frustrating when a critic is self-contradicting, and it's refreshing to hear others answer deep confusion with patent clarity.