Vision
America’s Government
Have the Constitution and the form of government it enshrines outlived their usefulness? Daniel Lazare thinks so (“People or parchment?” Aeon, January 30, 2015). Not only is our system of government broken, it’s undemocratic and unfair. “Nothing could be sillier than the notion of strolling into the 21st century with a pre-modern plan of government. It’s like sending an 18th century man-of-war into battle against a guided-missile destroyer. The US political system’s age, in other words, is showing.” Right. Mr. Lazare does not suggest an alternative to the Constitution, except to gesture in various ways toward more democracy and power to we the people – the very things the Constitution was written to keep at bat. It’s not so much that the Constitution no longer works. Rather, the moral consensus which gave rise to that great founding document, and which it continues to encode, has changed dramatically. The Constitution fights against a very fickle and fleeting spirit of the age, frustrating the desires of those who want what they want when they want it. The Constitution is always susceptible to amendment. But to discard it in the name of democracy would be a serious mistake.

http://aeon.co/magazine/society/the-cult-of-the-us-constitution/?utm_source=Aeon+newsletter&utm_campaign=66fd5beae3-Daily_newsletter_January_30_20151_30_2015&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_411a82e59d-66fd5beae3-68631581

Disciplines
Church History
Perhaps one of the most important lessons to be learned from Church history is that we must not lose sight of the purpose for studying Church history, or for studying anything at all, for that matter. This year I am committed to improving my understanding of and appreciation for Colum Cille, the great 6th-century founder of the monastery on Iona. My aim is to learn as much as I can from Colum about knowing and serving the Lord, and to avoid falling into the trap of venerating Colum as anything other than a sinner, saved and called by God, who has left behind some witness of his faith and his Lord. As Brian Lacey shows in his concise treatment of the saint and his legacy, Colum Cille and the Columban Tradition, a good deal of blood-letting, lying, and thieving has been perpetrated in the name of seeking to honor Colum, since most such efforts through the centuries have been primarily self-serving. Dr. Lacey expresses the hope “that the remaining sectarian animosities between the peoples who still honour his name will be, themselves, consigned to history.” Don’t hold your breath. He may be correct in saying, “we have never needed more an inspiration and a symbol like that of Colum Cille.” But his example and legacy can only serve us well to the extent that we allow this saint, or any saint, to fulfill his calling in exalting Jesus, and not us or our agendas, whether personal or institutional.

History
Speaking of which, it seems history – real history, and not the short-term, narrowly-focused, politically-motivated studies of the recent past – is about to make a comeback. The return of the grand historical narrative is gathering strength, promising to restore at least this discipline of the humanities to a more formative role in how we approach the future. This, at least, is the argument of David Armitage and Jo Guldi in a reprised 2 October 2014 post at Aeon (“Bonfire of the humanities,” Aeon, 2 October 2014, http://aeon.co/magazine/society/how-history-forgot-its-role-in-public-debate/?utm_source=Aeon+newsletter&utm_campaign=05ce9af926-Daily_newsletter_January_27_20151_27_2015&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_411a82e59d-05ce9af926-68631581). “The public future of the past” the authors insist, “is now firmly in historians’ hands. History as a discipline is poised to recover its ancient mission as the guide to life but in a new guise as a critical human science, capable of judging data, incorporating it into complex narratives, and presenting its conclusions in forms accessible to the widest possible range of publics as well to those who make the policies that shape all of our lives.” This sounds like good news to me. After all, the Bible makes lavish use of history to demonstrate the sovereignty and faithfulness of God, and to call humans to learn faith by understanding the lessons of the past. This is what the humanities, and especially history, can do: “The mission of the humanities is to transmit questions about value – and to question values – by testing traditions that build up over centuries and millennia. And within the humanities, it is the discipline of history that provides an antidote to short-termism, by giving pointers to the long future derived from knowledge of the deep past.” Let’s pray that Christian historians will help the believing community regain our sense of the past and of the ongoing progress of God’s purposes and Kingdom (Rodney Stark and his The Victory of Reason come to mind, as well as Thomas Cahill’s How the Irish Saved Civilization.) And let’s also hope that pastors will bring the discipline of historical study to bear more consistently on the task of making disciples in the local church.

Poetry as Medicine?
Are the sciences beginning to rediscover the value of the humanities for human flourishing? Belinda Jack thinks so, and she writes about the growing friendship between medicine and literature in a January 22, 2015 post at Times Higher Education (“The rise of the medical humanities,” Times Higher Education, 22 January 2015, http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/features/feature-the-rise-of-the-medical-humanities/2018007.fullarticle). Ms. Jack is especially enthused about the potential of poetry for reaching places within the human being the “knives and drugs” of medicine can never touch. She explains, “Like the novel, poetry can tell us about human experience, but it does this in its own language and not the more straightforward language of prose. It works by suggestion, but this doesn’t mean that it cannot console, teach, amuse, enlighten, mimic, disconcert and so much more. It can capture – or cause us to reconstruct – experiences and feelings that we might otherwise not be conscious of.” Poetry can teach us to experience or think things in new ways, to identify unrecognized feelings or states of mind, and to envision new – and healing – possibilities for our lives. Poetry creates a space within us for insights and understandings to emerge and coalesce that we can’t get from straight narrative. Ms. Jack explains, “a great poem also allows us to make sense of feelings that might otherwise be a searing amorphous mass somewhere deep inside us. Great poetry makes us understand the only half-understood; in that understanding comes relief, and it can feel very physical. This is art acting as a medicine.” But we must learn to read poetry and to let it work its magic on us by all its wondrous devices. So, for any who may have heretofore dismissed poetry as useless in a scientific age, think again. The scientists are.

Music and Life
A “musical hallucination” occurs when a tune or line from a song lodges in our brain and is so real that we could almost swear we’re hearing it. According to Jonathan Berger, our brains are ready receptacles for and eager sustainers of music. It appears to be a distinctly human thing (Jonathan Berger, “The Necessity of Musical Hallucinations,” Nautilus, January 29, 2015). And apparently, it’s good for us: “Music, repetitive and patterned by nature, provides structure within which we find anchors, context, and a basis for organizing time.” The brain seems built for music and creates all kinds of associations and affections, depending on the music we’re hearing and the circumstances under which we heard it previously. This makes music a powerful stimulant, whether to action or rest. Wow. Do you think God knew that? Could it be that music, and especially singing, is more important to our wellbeing than we know? Can music, especially music that centers on God, bring more depth of faith and love into our souls. Jonathan Berger suggests as much: “Perhaps as surrender to the noise and chaos that increasingly pummels our auditory system, musical imagery guides us, cajoles us, and sometimes coerces us, to peer inwardly, unravel, and understand the patterns of our lives.” Or, why are there so many psalms in the Bible? Which, come to think of it, are also poetry, no?

http://nautil.us/issue/20/creativity/the-necessity-of-musical-hallucinations

Outcomes
Pastors in Politics
According to a report at THEBLAZE.COM, somewhere around a thousand pastors are gearing up to run for political office in 2016. Billy Hallowell explains the efforts of one David Lane, a political operative, and something called The American Renewal Project, to affect the shape of culture and society by recruiting 1,000 pastors for a variety of political offices during the next cycle. Mr. Lane said “he launched the American Renewal Project after he began to think about the societal transformation that could happen if he was able to recruit 1,000 pastors to run in 2016 — a prospect that he said ‘would change America.’” Mr. Lane continued, “Somebody’s values are going to reign supreme. Our values or somebody else’s values...It’s our goal to bring spiritual men and women into the civil government arena.” Great. If only most pastors were really “spiritual men and women.” The folk who have valiantly led the Church to the margins of society over the past generation are now going to abandon her there to see if they can’t do the same for the rest of culture and society? Don’t misunderstand me: I love pastors and believe that spiritual, visionary, courageous, Biblically-grounded pastors hold the key to renewal, in the Church as well as in the nation. But they will do this best not by cramming the halls of legislatures but by making disciples who seek first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness as their highest priority in every area of life. That’s not happening at present, when pastors can freely wield the Sword of the Spirit, so it seems a little premature for them to be turning from this uncompleted task to take up one they can only botch. How can we expect “societal transformation” to happen under the constraints of the public square and by the limited powers of political action, when it’s not even happening in the churches? Pastors should stick to what they know and learn to fulfill their callings better than at present, before they decide to relocate their ineptness into another arena.

The Glory of God in Learning and Life
“...there are some circumstances concerning the worship of God, and government of the church, common to human actions and societies, which are to be ordered by the light of nature, and Christian prudence, according to the general rules of the Word, which are always to be observed.” (The Westminster Confession of Faith, 1.6) What the Confession teaches about worship and church government extends as well to all areas of life and learning, where the glory of God is the end we seek. The “light of nature” here refers to the understanding of God and His will which can be derived from His revelation in creation or culture (Pss. 19.1-4; 68.18; Prov. 25.2). We can discover the light of glory hidden in creation and culture, but we must be diligent to study these works of God if we are to discern Him speaking by them (Ps. 111.2). This is work for those who are wise, who have prudence to discern God’s Word in creation, according to the teaching and guidelines of His Word in Scripture (Ps. 36.9). Creational theology must be done under the cope of Biblical and systematic theology. The more adept one is at rightly dividing the Word of truth, the more capable and fruitful will be his work in the area of creational theology. On the larger scale, how does such a doctrine counsel us with respect to the dialog that ought to occur between such disciplines as, say, the arts or the sciences and theology. Cut off from the light of Scripture and sound doctrine, those seeking true knowledge in any other discipline must inevitably come short of the glory of God. At the same time, those whose calling is to know and make known the glory of God must seek Him and His glory in all places where His glory is being revealed, and by all the disciplines that give us access to that glory, so that the knowledge of the glory of the Lord covers the earth as the water covers the seas (2 Cir. 3.12-18; 1 Cor. 10.31; Hab. 2.14).

Envoi
What Job Came to Understand

God dropped down on him, a ferocious Wind
and Weight of Glory, sucked the air out of
his anger and resentment, and in love
laid bare the folly that had seized his mind
and caused his sin. God drew into the vortex
of His rebuke the vast sweep of creation,
with penetrating questions aimed to station
His Truth immovable within Job's cortex,
affections, and priorities, He blew 
away his vain pretense and blew his mind
with mysteries and wonders of the kind
that only God could understand or do.
  His brash presumption thus reduced to rubble,
  Job found at last the rest he sought in trouble.

T. M. Moore