“There’ll be scary ghost stories and tales of the glories of Christmases long. long ago.”
Loren Eaton hosts another round of ghost stories centered on Christmastime. There are many here, and Loren has a couple himself. Note this one called “Elizabeth.” Enjoy and post your comments.
In her regular Thursday column, Bethany Jenkins gives us Martin Luther on the nonexistence of a sacred/secular divide . Here’s part of it.
The pope or bishop anoints, shaves heads, ordains, consecrates, and prescribes garb different from that of the laity, but he can never make a man into a Christian or into a spiritual man by so doing. He might well make a man into a hypocrite or a humbug and blockhead, but never a Christian or a spiritual man. As far as that goes, we are all consecrated priests through baptism, as St. Peter says in 1 Peter 2:9, “You are a royal priesthood and a priestly realm.” The Apocalypse says, “Thou hast made us to be priests and kings by thy blood” (Rev. 5:9-10).
Watch a new documentary on C. H. Spurgeon today for free. It’s called Through the Eyes of Spurgeon. Get the details here.
Joe Carter breaks down the egoism of Ayn Rand.
“Reason, applied consistently, doesn’t lead us down a straight path to egoism, much less to capitalism. Examined closely, we would find that her entire Objectivist philosophy is founded on this simple question begging premise. . . .
“Ultimately, Rand’s egoism is irreconcilable with both Christianity and capitalism. In fact, since the system fails to have any true explanatory value, it’s difficult to find any reason to adopt Objectivism at all. Fortunately, we don’t have to buy into Rand’s philosophical errors in order to appreciate her fiction. We just have to keep in mind that instead of reading a “novel of ideas”, we are reading a work of fantasy.”
Dr. Hunter Baker observes, “All universities, and certainly Christian ones, face a landscape in which students have been largely replaced by consumers.” He says in his latest book, if Christian colleges try to be like their secular counterparts, they will fail on almost every level, particularly in their stated mission. On the other hand, if they integrate the worship of the Most High with every academic discipline, they will distinguish themselves and accomplish their mission. “Christian colleges can successfully argue that the best education connects with the mind, the body, and the soul.”
“All abuse, whether laser-tipped irony or bare-knuckle fisticuffs, is best delivered coolly, without huffing and puffing. The best abuse looks effortless, the work of a ninja not a WWF wrestler.” Patrick Kurp talks about An Anthology of Invective and Abuse from 1929.
“These days, Starbucks stores function more like gas stations: They’re everywhere, and frequented for fuel,” writes Margaret Rhodes for WIRED. But to compete with third wave coffee roasters for high-end coffee, Starbucks has restored a one-hundred-year-old building to host its Reserve Roastery and Tasting Room in Seattle. See the article for lots of pictures.
I’m thinking they keep the golden bulls in the back.
Many titles are recommended in today’s list of Christianity Today’s 2015 Book Awards, among them is James K.A. Smith’s work on Charles Taylor’s How to Be Secular. Smith makes Taylor’s work accessible to a broader audience and adds a good bit of commentary himself.
In the fiction category, CT picks Lila by Marilynne Robinson and The Invention of Wings by Sue Monk Kidd.
“Robinson slowly unfolds the story of Lila, a woman not quite defeated by a brutal, hardscrabble life, who discovers hope and security as the wife of an elderly pastor. Together, they wrestle with questions of the meaning of existence and the ultimate fate of humanity. Readers who loved Robinson’s earlier novel, Gilead, will discover the same breathtaking writing, beautifully painted scenes, and strong working knowledge of theology.” —Cindy Crosby, author of By Willoway Brook
And on The Invention of Wings:
“Based on the life of abolitionist Sarah Grimke and a fictional slave girl, Handful, the novel skillfully joins fiction and history, African American resilience and Southern white hypocrisy, Charlestonian exuberance and Quaker idealism. Kidd reminds us that the foundation of social injustice is ordinary human selfishness.” —Betty Smartt Carter, author of Home Is Always the Place You Just Left
Here’s a video of the panel discussion held October 24 during the 2014 Baylor Symposium on Faith and Culture, Faith and Film. It was called “The Lives of (Three) Others: Our Stories of Faith and Film.”
Participants:
• John Wilson, Editor of Books and Culture and Editor-at-Large for Christianity Today
• William Romanowski, Professor of Communication Arts and Sciences, Calvin College
• Alissa Wilkinson, Assistant Professor of English and Humanities, The King’s College and Film Critic for Christianity Today Movies
Owen Strachan thinks so. “Be of good cheer, evangelical-arts-aficionados. Good things are afoot.”