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Realizing the presence, promise, and power of the Kingdom of God.
The Week

The Week June 14-20, 2015

Worldview, art and the faith, history, violence

Vision
The Role of Vision
Daphna Oyserman answers the question, “When does the future begin?” by saying, “When it feels connected to the present” (Aeon, June 12, 2015). By this she means that the clearer a person’s vision is of his or her desired future, and the more present activities are linked to that vision, the more present experience improves in the direction of that future identity. She explains, for example, that middle school students “are more likely to succeed if supported to experience their adult future self as close, connected to their current self, and to interpret experienced difficulties as importance rather than impossibility, and to see schoolwork as a ‘me’ kind of thing to do.” The same was found to be true with university students: “Desired possible identities were motivating in success-likely contexts, undesired possible identities were motivating in failure-likely contexts.” One’s vision of the future can make a significant impact on his present, and, consequently, in the future he seeks: “Across studies, the answer is clear, even though the future starts later, the way to get going and keep going is to make the future feel connected to the present and hence requiring of immediate and persistent action.” The future of the cosmos and every human being is the Kingdom of God, in its full glory. That future is coming daily, and we are commanded to pray for it and seek it. Christian leaders, got this?

http://ideas.aeon.co/viewpoints/daphna-oyserman-on-when-does-the-future-begin?utm_source=Aeon+newsletter&utm_campaign=75a6ab9f39-Daily_newsletter_Friday_June_12_20156_10_2015&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_411a82e59d-75a6ab9f39-68631581

The Arts in the Life of Faith
Kathleen L. Housley’s interview with Jeremy Begbie in the Summer 2015 issue of Image is so far-ranging and dead-on that I will allow Dr. Begbie to speak for himself concerning his vision of the Christian life and the role of the arts in it. Regarding contemporary worship: “Has Christianity anything more to offer than a replication of our culture’s consumerism?” On the Gospel: “The Gospel, after all, tells of a seismic disturbance affecting every atom of creation. The world is and will be a different place because of what happened in Jesus.” Scripture as the foundation of the life of faith: “But through the work of the Holy Spirit, and with other Christians past and present, the Bible does train me in Christ-like habits of mind and heart which, I hope, will give me the wisdom to say what is needed...” Arts and metaphor: “Rather, the arts give expression to a metaphorical way of perceiving the world – a bodily, emotionally charged outlook which reminds us there is always more to the world than we can name, control, and grasp.” The limits of scientific thinking: “Science is not qualified to adjudicate on the existence or otherwise of a creator.” Art and hope: “Christian art, I believe, whatever else it evokes, will surely have a dimension of promise about it, a flavor of hope.” On making music: “[I]t’s part of that cultural calling that makes us human: to take the things of the earth and fashion them into patterns that bring delight.” “Hearing a chord can change our mental categories, and in ways that allow the Bible’s witness to the Trinity to be heard far more clearly.” Art and the Church: “I am convinced that we need to draw far more fully on what Richard Hays, my colleague at Duke, calls ‘a scriptural imagination.’” “[I]f the arts are to flourish as part of a church’s witness and worship, then church leaders need to get inside the skin of artists, to understand who they are, what they do, and why they do it. Congregations need to be educated (yes, educated) in how to access and enter into what is sometimes a strange and unsettling world: how to ‘read’ visual art, to hear ‘in between the notes of music, and so on.” And much more besides. If you only read one article on the arts this year, make it this one.

Disciplines
Patience
We are reminded, by those who seem to know, that spiritual growth is an inside-out proposition. In general, I think that’s true. Spiritual change, however, can be an outside-in matter, one we are scarcely aware may be happening to us, and which may not always be for good. Chelsea Wald explains, in “Why Your Brain Hates Slowpokes” (Nautilus, May/June 2015) that the increasingly rapid pace of contemporary society can actually affect the way our brains experience time. For example, when we are confronted with going more slowly than we think we should, our fast-paced brains can stretch out the experience of time, making it seem longer than we would like, leading to fidgeting, impatience, and even rage. Consequently, it’s clear that culture can shape our souls, and not always in positive ways, especially if we are not mindful of what may be happening in us. But, Ms. Wald reports, we need not despair. Help is available, just the kind of encouragement we would expect from a scientific journal like Nautilus. It seems we can recalibrate wrong affections, misguided thinking, and undesirable practices, through the regular practice of meditation and thanksgiving. Wow. Imagine that. 

History
In a review of a new book on the Enlightenment, Jonathan Rée makes an important point about history writing. He reminds us that history is not just about facts and events, objectively recorded and described. All history involves interpretation and, therefore, philosophy or worldview. One person’s view of history must necessarily reflect his or her overall understanding of life and the world, meaning and value, hope and destiny. At times, many historians have agreed on a particular way of viewing the past, whereupon a title has been conferred on an epoch, defining it in some kind of official way. Such as, for example, the Age of Enlightenment, which is supposed to represent humanity’s coming of age, shaking off the vestiges of superstition and darkness and emerging into the light of reason, liberty, equality, and universal brotherhood. Except, nothing of the sort has actually occurred. So, in critiquing his chosen book, Mr. Rée suggests we take a more realistic view of history, one that admits the biases and presuppositions that guide it, and this is open to more voices and perspectives. He further suggests that we set aside the idea of Enlightenment as a failure, and take another look at where the “Age of Reason” has actually brought us. Good ideas, those ("Breaking the Enlightenment spell," Prospect, June 20, 2015).
http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/arts-and-books/breaking-the-enlightenment-spell-2).

Outcomes
Violence and Worldview
Violence is not the work of sadistic, pathological, or irrational people. As Tage Rai explains, violence is, for the most part, completely rational and justified. It all depends on your worldview (“How could they?” Aeon, 18 June 2015). Within the moral order of certain people – perhaps all people – the legitimacy of violence is taught and practiced as important to maintaining proper social relationships, proper social order. Violence will not be stopped until our ideas about moral order are reformed. Reason always functions within a framework, or worldview, which shapes the way we think, the things we desire, and the values we cherish. Tage Rai insists we will only eliminate violence when every worldview community agrees that all violence is wrong. Then that fundamental principle will guide the thoughts and actions of all reasonable people; support for violence will disappear and, with that support, violence itself. Well, no. In a sinful world people will always hold on to some notion of violence as a legitimate means to whatever their ends may be. And, in fact, some uses of violence are justified in a fallen world, as when the State is empowered to bear the sword against evildoers (Rom. 13.1-4). Violence is necessary at times, and at such times, not evil. A day is coming when all violence will, indeed, come to and end, but only among those who have attained the new heavens and new earth. Reason is a powerful tool, but get the premises wrong, and wrong reason results, leading to actions that often take the form of violence. And wrong reason will persist in people until the problem of sin is addressed in their souls.

http://aeon.co/magazine/philosophy/people-do-violence-because-their-moral-codes-demand-it/?utm_source=Aeon+newsletter&utm_campaign=1b0f45bb83-Daily_newsletter_18th_June6_15_2015&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_411a82e59d1b0f45bb83-68631581


Envoi
The Art of Life

“I think the art of life consists in tackling each immediate evil as well as we can.”

                                               - C. S. Lewis

The reality of sin, pervasive and subtle, means that every day is a struggle to maintain and advance the Kingdom of God. Every work, every task, each conversation is an IED waiting to explode in your face, a set of poisonous fangs concealed behind an alluring gaze, the bared talons of a raging eagle, falling gloriously toward you. Each moment, though it comes pristine from God, arrives with sharp edges, like broken glass, to cut away your vitality and whittle down your hope. Do not be deceived; no good thing comes naturally or easily. You must be on guard. You must be vigilant. You cannot hide from time’s advance or sin’s tightening stranglehold. You must fight. You must create. You must redeem each moment and everything in it, washing it in the blood of Christ, polishing it with the grace of the Spirit, and fashioning it on the wheel of the Word to fit the pleasure of God and serve your neighbor. Do not look back, or the accumulation of advancing moments will harden you like a pillar of salt and freeze you in your faithless tracks. Look ahead to where you’ve been summoned, and craft each opportunity, as it passes through your hands back to Him Who gave it, as a journeyman’s gift, announcing your soon arrival and tapping into the delight that fills the heart of your awaiting King. To art, then, and life, and without flinching or complaining, for this is your sufficiency each day.

T. M. Moore

 

T.M. Moore

T. M. Moore is principal of The Fellowship of Ailbe, a spiritual fellowship in the Celtic Christian tradition. He and his wife, Susie, make their home in the Champlain Valley of Vermont.
Books by T. M. Moore

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