1. I want a psychology centered on depravity
That is to say, when people look at the human psyche, I want the first thing they recognize to be that it’s broken and destructive. Inversely, when people think about depravity, I want them to recognize that it’s most apparent in the human psyche — our bodies in themselves don’t immediately evoke depravity; what goes on inside our heads that makes us do the things we do with our bodies does. Somewhat tangentially, I also want the church as a whole to find some way to interface its categories of mind, body, and spirit with psychological categories. I want to know how the soul relates to the superego.
John Ahern writes,
As with all debates, there are some things left over you wish you had had time to say or points that weren’t brought up that you’d like to be brought up. That’s the great thing about Pontification Ad Nauseam, of course – the discussion is on-going. I do fully hope that Nick, James, and Philip respond to this as they see fit. I’m addressing here a point that James and Nick made toward the end of the round regarding the dear old syllogism.
I. God cannot say something untrue. (Heb. 6:18)
II. The Bible is spoken by God. (2 Timothy 3:16, 2 Samuel 23:2, 2 Peter 3:15-16)
III. Therefore, the Bible contains nothing untrue.
PAN has started a new series (hopefully) of “dialogs” – several editors, over audio, discussing certain issues. The particular issue here is a perennial favorite of the PANers. John Ahern, Philip Hilton, James McCord, and Nick Embrey all discussed Scriptural infallibility for about 2 hours. This is the (largely) unedited recording of what we came up with.
Here are the links to the mp3 files of the discussion.
Elizabeth Ten-Hove wonders…
In all but the driest and coldest regions of the world, mosquitoes are a menace. Armies of them appear at the first sign of spring and tirelessly campaign until hard frosts or drought kill them off. Itchy red bits are a customary cross of the summer, and a relentless drone greets the twilight as predictably as birdsong at sunrise. Quite apart from the annoyance, mosquitoes are dangerous carriers of diseases like malaria and West Nile Virus, diseases that afflict thousands, if not millions, of men, women, and children, especially in the poorest areas of the world. It’s hard to see any redeeming quality in the blood-sucking insect; it isn’t even beautiful. What was God thinking when He made such a creature? View Full Post
John Ahern writes,
In reading some of the fairy tales of both the Grimms, Anderson, and various others, one salient feature of a great many of them is this concept of the Forbidden Fruit. A Forbidden Fruit is something irresistibly desirable for little better reason than that it is forbidden. It isn’t an impulse based in the usual human desires, psychological, physical, or otherwise, but simply an impulse to do something because it’s off limits.
(Note: this is not an April Fool’s prank. If I say something odd, it’s because I’m odd).
After reading C. S. Lewis’s Space Trilogy last summer, particularly after finishing Perelandra, I found myself annoyed at all the people who had recommended them to me as great Christian literature. Now, this annoyance is just because I’m immature, but after I got over being annoyed, I still felt the same distrust of the books.
Admittedly, the books are good writing. I found them to be fascinating, and my attention never lagged while reading them. Each book tells a complete story, yet the storyline drawn over the complete trilogy is always apparent and cohesive. What was begun in Out of the Silent Planet is continued in Perelandra, and completed in That Hideous Strength, despite the books being so different.
And in these books, like in The Chronicles of Narnia, I found a lot I loved, and a lot of good, solid teaching. Nobody communicates Christianity as cleverly and as subtly as Lewis does.
But that’s the problem. View Full Post
Philip Hilton writes,
In today’s world it is a fact that we face a constantly changing language. Slang evolves, it seems, overnight. New techno-jargon comes into our home quicker than the technology itself. In addition, there is more or less a general disrespect for old or complex words. So, it behooves us to ask: Is change in language necessarily degeneration? If not, what counts as degenerate, ‘bad’ changing language; and what is ‘good’ changing language? And why do so many people care?
View Full Post
John Ahern scribbles deliriously,
Some storm-tossed sailors have just landed on some coast outside Africa. They’ve just been saved from a gale sent by Juno, who has a thing with these Trojans. Venus, who has a different thing with these Trojans (Aeneas happens to be her son), comes whining to Zeus, calling him out for not keeping his promises to the poor, destitute Trojans. Not particularly worried about pandering to the special interests of lobbyists—he is a somewhat partisan figure himself—Jove consoles Venus, telling her that, in fact, the Trojans’ luck will turn. They’ll settle in Latium and someday have an empire. Bigger than anybody else’s. An imperium sine fine.
Carson Spratt theorizes…
I’ve been thinking about the relation between language, self-knowledge, and power over the physical world. While this might seem a little erudite at first, it can actually be fascinating.
My thoughts on this started when my family began to attend a new church when I was ten years old. I walked in the doors, and was presented with an entirely unfamiliar phenomenon: everyone was blurred. No, not in the visual sense, but in the mental sense: I could not see anyone. A large, jostling crowd flowed around me as I tried to comprehend this. Why did everything look so strange? View Full Post
John Ahern revisits the haunts of his youth (???),
Let’s say I collaborate with a friend of mine who lives in Buffalo. We decide to chose the first man each of us sees on the Main Streets of our respective towns wearing a leather jacket or the first girls we see wearing pink or the first boys we see with caps backwards. Suppose we give these pairs of people pieces of paper to write a story on. They oblige us and write a story. Now, suppose these two people, one from Grand Junction, CO, and Buffalo, NY, both write stories about a fisherman in the Gulf of Mexico who, after 40 days of not catching anything, finally reels in an enormous marlin. It then gets eaten by sharks.
