Vision
Transhumanity
There really are people thinking and researching about a marriage between information technology and the human brain. Here’s how Cesar A. Hidalgo puts it in Scientific American: “We are in the midst of a new revolution that has the potential to transform this dynamic and make it even more powerful. In this millennium, human and machine will merge through devices that will combine the biological computers housed between our ears and the digital machines that have emerged from our curious minds. The resulting hyperconnected society will present our species with some of the most challenging ethical problems in human history. We could lose aspects of our humanity that some of us consider essential: for example, we might cheat death. But this merger between our bodies and the information-processing machines our brains imagined might be the only way to push the growth of information forward. We were born from information, and now, increasingly, information is being born from us” (“Planet Hard Drive,” August, 2015). Is this a good thing? After all, at present don’t we connect ourselves to machines that are smarter than our brains? Think: pace-maker, dialysis, hearing aids. What would be wrong about a more direct connection to our brains? Permanently? There’s grist here for Christian thinking. If, that is, they’ll allow us at the table. Dr. Hidalgo, for one, doesn’t seem all that welcoming: “An optimistic view is that the globalizing forces of technology and the fall of parochial institutions, such as patriotism and religion, will help erode historical differences that continue to inspire hate...” Hmmm. Looks like future brain/technology interfaces will be programmed to squelch belief.

Disciplines
Christian Ethics
Ethics describes the discipline of our bodily and temporal existence for the purpose of morality. Christian ethics crosses all categories of discipline – spiritual, relational, vocational communal, and provisional. As a spiritual discipline ethics begins within, in our thoughts, affections, and priorities. The ethical bent formed there plays out in our relationships, work, and community life, as well as in our responses to those temporary trials and distractions common to all. Christian ethical behavior is formed by the study of God’s Word, especially as that leads us to discover more of our identity in Christ, and by acts of obedience taken in the light of such teaching and with a view to the promises of God. In his article, “Solidarity in Suffering and Glory: The Unifying Role of Psalm 34 in 1 Peter 3:10-12,” Sean M. Christensen shows how Peter used Psalm 34 and David’s deliverance therein celebrated to instruct believers in persecution how to live out their salvation in Christ, according to His example and in His power (JETS, June 2015). This is a fine study demonstrating the NT’s reliance on the OT and how the two work together to point us to Christ and guide the life of discipleship. Mr. Christensen also shows the theological nature and moral imperative of Christian ethics, even in the face of adversity. We need more writing like this which takes raw Biblical data, in its context, and applies it to the difficult questions and issues facing us in our day.

Community
Akiyo M. Cantrell calls on the Christian community to take up the cause of Hiroshima survivors and devote themselves to making sure the world does not forget the horrors of nuclear war (“Remembering Hiroshima: The Construction of Communal Memory,” Christian Scholar’s Review, Summer, 2015). Ms. Cantrell, who was raised in Hiroshima, reports on the work of survivors of the atomic bomb attack in 1945 who tell their story of the experience in an effort to keep alive the memory of this terrible event. While certain aspects of Ms. Cantrell’s article can be fairly criticized – for example, she calls the event sin without any intimation of guilt to the Japanese people or their leaders – her overall purpose in summoning the Christian community to carry on the work of Hiroshima survivors as the last of them dies off has merit. Christians should be a force for peace. But I take away from this article something even more important for Christians, and that is what the title suggests, the power of communal memories. The people of Hiroshima own the memory of the bombing and regularly act on that memory to call the world to sanity where nuclear weapons are concerned. By listening to the experiences of survivors, entering into those experiences and making them their own (if only vicariously), and joining together to keep these memories alive, the people of Hiroshima have maintained a consistent and varied approach to working for peace. Should not Christians work to develop, own, maintain, and act upon their own communal memories as citizens and ambassadors of the Kingdom of God? Indeed, they should. The lack of such a communal memory militates against our unity in Christ, erodes our confidence in the progress of God’s Kingdom, and leads to a narrow and merely individualistic view of the faith. Nurturing such a communal memory should be part of the ministry of every church leader.

Poetry
A few voice quotes from Dana Gioia on why poetry matters (“Poetry as Enchantment,” Dark Horse, Summer 2015, http://www.thedarkhorsemagazine.com/danagioiapoetrya.html): Poetry has power to communicate beyond words alone: “…an essential part of poetry’s power has little connection to conceptual understanding. Poetry proffers some mysteries that lie beyond paraphrase.” Poetry is a universal language: “Literature has many uses, not all of which occur in a classroom. Poetry would not be a universal human practice if it did not serve large and various purposes. People have sung or chanted poems to sow and reap, court reluctant lovers, march into battle, lull infants to sleep, and call the faithful to worship. Poetry gave humanity the words to get through life.” Poetry can reach the heart and powerfully stimulate the imagination: “The power of poetry is to affect the emotions, touch the memory, and incite the imagination with unusual force.” Poetry can re-enchant the world: “The aim of poetry—in this primal and primary sense as enchantment—is to awaken us to a fuller sense of our own humanity in both its social and individual aspects.” For more such insights on the importance of poetry, consult Mr. Gioia’s earlier book, Can Poetry Matter? (The answer: It can and does.)

Envoi
Like This

The scene in Men in Black, in which the Bug
comes down the gangplank of his space craft, mad
and raging: “Now you’ve done it!” – cosmic thug

unto the end. It doesn’t seem as bad
as K insists it is, but J looks back
and forth between the two of them, a tad

unsure, it’s clear. The Bug lays down more smack
till K says, “Hands behind your head!” “You mean,
like this?” the bug replies, and reaches back

(the camera shifts so that its back is seen)
and grips its putrefying Edgar suit
behind the head, and rips it open, clean

and whole, and casts it off, like rotten fruit.
Then, liberated from its death suit, free,
gigantic, fearsome, eyes like fire, a brute

the likes of which you’ll never, ever see,
the creature lunges at our heroes – ROAR!
We’re stunned, and wonder what the end will be.

Lord, rip my death suit; throw it on the floor,
and flow forth in Your power, more and more!

T. M. Moore