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,
(Emphasis on the not.)
There are a lot of common avenues of arguing about Church music that I think are seriously flawed and particularly destructive because they may be arguing for the right music for the wrong reasons. Here I’m simply outlining the ways I think are particularly unwise—perhaps in another place I can begin to outline the ways I think one ought to do it. (The bold affirms what I do not.)
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.
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.
Philip Hilton scribbles,
In this week of Advent, we are all reading the story of Jesus’ birth according to Luke. For some, this may inspire joy, credulity and various levels of inspiration. These chosen mortals can relive the Annunciation, and feel only what they ought to feel — the joy of the coming, the terror of the angel, the solemnity of the presence of the wise men. Unfortunately, I am rather willful, and I have been endowed with a regrettable amount of skepticism, particularly when it comes to the angelic pronouncements.
Mark DenHoed writes,
I have decided to open up my heart and share the outpourings of my delicate soul.
Xanthus
The blossom of hope,
That glimmer of youth,
Tumble down the slope
Oh, dear, forsooth!
The blue of the sky,
The wash of the sea,
The fear to soon die,
A shattering plea
A Love Lost and Regained: Installment V
At this point, we (John and Mark) came upon a manuscript in a different hand on a different type of stationary. It was, oddly, laminated. The paper inside was crinkled slightly, as if a tiny bit of water had dripped on it. It read as follows.
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Evgeny Kissin, 38-year-old concert pianist, debuted with the Ulyanovsk Symphony Orchestra at the age of 10. At 13, he gained international recognition for playing and recording both Chopin’s piano concertos with the Moscow Philharmonic Orchestra. He was, reputedly, able to hum a Bach tune along with his sister, who was then playing it on the piano, at the age of 11 months. So much for Wikipedia.
On YouTube, you can look up an interview with Kissin, who relates the instance of receiving a good review from a critic when he was 17, but with this barb at the end of the article – “In general, one gets an impression that, up till now, everything has been easy for Kissin in piano playing – sometimes even too easy. Both plusses and minuses of his art come from that fact. Now we only hear in his playing what comes from his great natural gift. This is, of course, wonderful, but in future, something definitely has to change. What? When? In which way? Everything will depend on that.”
I’m responding here to Mr. Hilton’s post arguing for the fallibility of Scripture. It was, in my humble opinion, an excellent post. The arguments for the fallibility of the Bible are made often for emotional reasons, perhaps out of embarrassment that Christians still believe that some 3000-year-old document is historically accurate, or out of disgust for the schisms caused by contorted interpretations. Instead, Mr. Hilton argued from academic reasons. To make sure I understand his arguments, I will reproduce here a few of the salient conclusions from his post.
First, canonicity: the question revolves around what books you include in the Bible. View Full Post
John Richard Ahern writes,
Spring
“I will set a sword in every blade of grass to wound them and the very clods of earth shall be venom to their feet…”
I rinsed this morning’s sessile toothpaste from the sink
drowning it with high frequency percussive taps
hitting the ammonia baptized steel with splash
from the arc through three point polished nickel neck.
