tortured wonders (short) review

 

i just finished reading 'Tortured Wonders: Christian Spirituality for people, Not Angels" by Rodney Clapp.  the basic premise of the book is that much of the spirituality (and related disciplines) we are offered as christians is falsely anchored in the idea that we are (at best) body-less beings.  we are just waiting to shed this fleshy part of us so we can "be all we can be".  Clapp argues throughout that 'the flesh' is something not only to be celebrated in the present but shows through scripture and theology/history that there is a radical and surprising continuity between this body and the body we will receive in the fullness of god's time (he masterfully incorporates pop culture icons, great artists, church fathers, and scripture).  Clapp claims that is perspective on the body (in light of the resurrection) is "generous, orthodox christian spirituality."  by no means does he fail to face up to much of the pain and struggle of our mortal coils.  the second half of the book is an unflinching examination of death, disease, sex, and body image (exercise, diet, etc.) 

other highlight for me were Clapp's discussion of the eucharist and his passionate, clever, and amusing chapter, "Jesus and the grotesque" (chapter 9).  the grotesque chapter included a subheading, "a spirituality that breaks wind"...what's not to like about that!

low-lights were infrequent but overall i felt like his bias toward augustine might have been moderated with some more reflection on irenaeus (he did use irenaeus some so this critique probably just exposes my own bias).  Clapp also missed the chance to draw out his celebration of human createdness to all of the created order.  this also has huge missional implications that were scarcely mentioned.  instead Clapp seemed satisfied to limit his discussion to 'the church' which had me wondering about the missio dei and a more expansive vision for the kingdom coming on earth as it is in heaven.  on page 220 he summarizes christian spirituality as, "participation and formation in the life of the church", which i feel comes up short of God's already-work of redeeming the whole cosmos - where else might god be at work to spiritually form his creation.  but, the book was already 256 pages and he probably needed to stop.

overall, i highly recommend this book, especially if you are interested in another angle on the fleshy spirituality that people like Tom Wright are bumping their gums about.  great easter reading...we are a resurrection people!

seedlings

exciting times in several communality gardens with seedleaves and sprouts all over the place.  i heard the Graham's have some spinach growing, the Koch's have seedlings up.  hoorah.  bring on the spring.  anyone else getting some green growth?

closing doors

being a part of this intentional community has raised many questions for us about how it is we express our fidelity to God, each other, and this place called lexington, kentucky.  we can take our love for God on the road and we can even honor our commitment to people we live far away from (in a sort or email-y, phone call-y, diminished way).  however, it seems to me one of the most difficult things to do is vow fidelity to a place.  making a covenant with God expressed in an unwavering commitment to a particular place seems like a reckless act that undermines opportunity for bigger and better things and places. we all want to keep our options open.  hyper-mobility is a treasure of this age so to say that one is sticking around "till death do us part" is a very provocative and offensive act.  i hasten to point out that i think staying with intentionality is a qualitative leap from sticking around because it is easier or makes sense.  'staying', done well, is a energy-drenched-action that requires every bit as much determination and willingness to be unsettled as does 'going'.  you might even say that in this time of unparalleled mobility, staying (with intentionality) is the new going.  will has suggested that one of the most daring things we can do as missionaries is to tell our neighbors that we are going to be living next to them "till death do us part".  a powerful challenge.

So, i was interested to read this article in the New York Times that suggests closing doors of opportunity might actually be the most sane thing to do.  here's a clip from the piece and you can read the whole article here.  closing doors and welcoming continuity in our living situations might be an important missional ethic for the church that is emerging - but it might be one of the most difficult.

So what can be done? One answer, Dr. Ariely said, is to develop more social checks on overbooking. He points to marriage as an example: “In marriage, we create a situation where we promise ourselves not to keep options open. We close doors and announce to others we’ve closed doors.”

Or we can just try to do it on our own. Since conducting the door experiments, Dr. Ariely says, he has made a conscious effort to cancel projects and give away his ideas to colleagues. He urges the rest of us to resign from committees, prune holiday card lists, rethink hobbies and remember the lessons of door closers like Xiang Yu.

'clean' coal?

this article will appear in the Washington Post as an opinion piece tomorrow.  it is an excellent piece that exposes some of the falsehood that surrounds energy policy.  i have clipped the start of the article below. 

(btw, the author of this piece, Jeff Biggers, has co-edited one of my favorite books about a forgotten hero of this part of the world, Don West.  if you are interested in Southern-preacher-activist-types who are way ahead of their time, check out the book here)

 

'Clean' Coal?  Don't try to Shovel That   By Jeff Biggers

Sunday, March 2, 2008; Page B02

Every time I hear our political leaders talk about "clean coal," I think about Burl, an irascible old coal miner in West Virginia. After 35 years underground, he struggled to conjure enough breath to match his storytelling verve, as if the iron hoops of a whiskey barrel had been strapped around his lungs. In 1983, during my first visit to Appalachia as a young man, Burl rolled up his pants and showed me the leg that had been mangled in a mining accident. The scars snaked down to his ankles.

"My grandpa barely survived an accident in the mines in southern Illinois," I told him. "He had these blue marks and bits of coal buried in his face."

"Coal tattoo," Burl wheezed. "Don't let anyone ever tell you that coal is clean."

Clean coal: Never was there an oxymoron more insidious, or more dangerous to our public health. Invoked as often by the Democratic presidential candidates as by the Republicans and by liberals and conservatives alike, this slogan has blindsided any meaningful progress toward a sustainable energy policy.

Democrats excoriated President Bush last month when he released a budget calling for more -- billions more -- in funds to reduce carbon emissions from coal-burning power plants to create "clean coal." But hardly a hoot could be heard about his proposed cuts to more practical investments in solar energy, hydrogen fuel and home energy efficiency.

Meanwhile, leading Democrats were up in arms over the Energy Department's recent decision to abandon the $1.8 billion FutureGen project in eastern Illinois, planned as the first coal-fired plant to capture and store harmful carbon dioxide emissions. Energy Department officials, unlike politicians, had to confront the spiraling costs of this fantasy.

Orwellian language has led to Orwellian politics. With the imaginary vocabulary of "clean coal," too many Democrats and Republicans, as well as a surprising number of environmentalists, have forgotten the dirty realities of extracting coal from the earth. Pummeled by warnings that global warming is triggering the apocalypse, Americans have fallen for the ruse of futuristic science that is clean coal. And in the meantime, swaths of the country are being destroyed before our eyes.

Here's the hog-killing reality that a coal miner like Burl or my grandfather knew firsthand: No matter how "cap 'n trade" schemes pan out in the distant future for coal-fired plants, strip mining and underground coal mining remain the dirtiest and most destructive ways of making energy.

Coal ain't clean. Coal is deadly.

(read the rest of the article here)

more music

and while we're blogging about music that inspires proper rage and hope...while discovering some great you tube larry norman clips i came across martyn singing one of my favorite songs of recent years.

how did we end up here.

the passing of a great american rocker

i read today that Larry Norman died over the weekend.  i grew up in a home where Norman's music could be heard often (along with singers like barry mcguire).  Larry Norman provided tunes for the soundtrack of the Jesus movement, a movement that has created the space for our generation to explore so freely the kingdom coming on earth as it is in heaven.

in recent years our friend Martyn Joseph covered a brilliant tune of Norman's, 'the great american novel' - you can see martyn perform the song here.  and you can see Larry performing the song here.

Thanks for your prayers

I wanted to take some time to thank everyone who has been praying for me as I've been going through a very difficult period in my relationship with JFK (John). In the last week I have really felt those prayers in a very amazing way. From my point of view there is no other way to explain how my compassion for John has been renewed and my heart softened toward him. The same issues still persist and we've still got a lot of things that we need to work through and address. However, I feel like my attitude has really been transformed from one of fatigued, demand oriented complaining, to one of renewed concern for John's health and well-being and compassion toward him. This could only be the work of the Holy Spirit, through the prayers of the saints, because nothing else has really changed about the situation. I've still had to put up with the daily demands (very high demands) of loving someone who still generally tends to live in his own world and doesn't seem to possess the capacity to understand how much it hurts me when I really want to connect with him but cannot. Though I still see the issues in pretty much the same way as I did two weeks ago, the thing that has changed is that I've been able to begin putting my focus more squarely upon John's well-being and taking it off of myself and how I feel. There is no way that this could have happened for me if I did not have a loving community of people who listen to me when I am struggling, encourage me when I'm weak, and pray for me when I'm finding it difficult to pray. The road ahead is a long one. But because of the presence of the body of Christ around me it is a road that leads through my own personal "Jerusalem's" to the promised land on the other side. Thanks........you know who you are.....

blueEnergy

This is a really neat organization, a little bit like Kiva, that does some very cool work in different areas around the world. Check it out when you have the chance.

http://www.blueenergygroup.org/GetInvolved/Donate/Donate.php

bad meat?

yet another reason to eat locally raised meat products.

USDA Orders Nation's Largest Beef Recall

we love mountains

some of us spent a bit of our valentines day in front of the kentucky capitol building in frankfort rallying for the end of mountain top removal. these are just a few photos from the excursion. there was a wonderful turnout. i heard that there may have been around 1,000 people.

i love mountains

if you are able, please come to Frankfort this Thursday to show support for the 'stream saver' legislation. 

more information at the KFTC site

...and for more details including an amazing video and how YOU benefit from coal mining see www.ilovemountains.org

kingdom moment

right now i am very proud to be an australian.  the new government has made some remarkable steps toward reconciliation with the indigenous people of australia.  i don't think it is an overstatement to suggest that we are getting glimpse of the kingdom coming.

for the full story, see this link.  and for a look at the apology speech, see this link.  with so much bad history being made throughout the world we need not let this wonderful history-making escape us.

not love

a few weeks ago i shared this with the community at one of our high st gatherings.  some people had asked for a copy so here it is.  i took it from a brilliant sermon by Joe Dongell at Asbury Theological Seminary (you can down load the sermon from itunes - enter Joe's name and some of the following details and it should show up...09-18-2007 "Chapel sermons from the Kentucky campus of Asbury Theological Seminary").

it is a stirring collection of challenges that has been a good contrast to our careful reading of 1 Cor 13.

 

Our un-love (our immaturity in love) is exposed when:

A word of correction absolutely floors us and we think life is not worth living anymore

Or

When we constantly require delicate tip-toeing treatment from others

Or

When we have trouble admitting that ideas and reflections that we have not generated are actually pretty good

Or

When we gauge our worth by comparing ourselves with others and end up feeling secretly relieved when certain other people fail or have a hard time…and slightly sick to our stomach when other people succeed

Or

When we presume that our own motives are absolutely pure but then ferociously dissect the possible motives of other people with a robust cynical imagination

Or

When we find ourselves obsessing about fairness and are driven to distraction in campaigning to right every single wrong against ourselves

Or

When we are quite delighted in our spectacular demonstrations of love and sacrifice for others but are deeply hurt when our successes are not publicly recognized

Or

When we demand forgiveness from others for our faults but grant forgiveness to others in tiny slivers, tipped with poison

Or

When we advocate tirelessly for justice and mercy, or solid theology, or cultural sensitivity (or whatever it is) while leaving a trail of broken relationships in our own wake

Or

When in hearing a list like this we immediately think of all the other people who needed to hear this list without considering that I might be the man, that I might be that woman.

good words from paul

good words. especially in response to sherry's thankfulness post.

don't fret or worry. instead of worrying, pray. let petitions and praises shape your worries into prayers, letting God know your concerns. before you know it, a sense of God's wholeness, everything coming together for good, will come and settle you down. it's wonderful what happens when Christ displaces worry at the center of your life.

summing it all up, friends, i'd say you'll do best by filling your minds and meditating on things true, noble, reputable, authentic, compelling, gracious-the best, not the worst; the beautiful, no the ugly; things to praise, not to curse. put into practice what you learned from me, what you heard and saw and realized. do that, and God, who makes everything work together, will work you into his most excellent harmonies.

african diary

Ty and Lisa Samson made it back from their trip to Africa.  Ty has posted some wonderful photos here.