Vavasor Powell: nothing else to do

Pray that they last days, and they last works may be the best; and that when thou comest to die, thou mayest have nothing else to do but die.

Vavasor Powell (quoted Puritan Golden Treasury p72)

Postman: IQ?

There is no such thing as 'intelligence'.  It is a word not a thing, and a word of a very high order of abstraction.  But if we believe it to be a thing like the pancreas or liver, then we will believe scientific procedures can locate it and measure it...

...Joseph Weizenbaum summed it up by saying, "Few 'scientific' concepts have so thoroughly muddled the thinking of both scientists and the general public as that of 'intelligence quotient' or 'IQ'.  The idea that intelligence can be quantitatively measured along a single linear scale has caused untold harm to our society in general, and to education in particular."

Technopoly, p.130&131

Quick-review: Connected

...by Sam Allberry (IVP 2012)

A freebie from a conference, so quids in. 

It's a nice little book.  It doesn't answer some of my questions about the Trinity that I'd love to understand (at least no more than other similar books I have read, which hinted they would).  But actually he doesn't claim to: rather it's about how the doctrine of the Trinity underpins much we believe and guides us in some areas of life.  And he can be quite funny too.

So: very good - but not (nor does not claim to be) a big theological tome exploring the deeper mysteries.  The kind of book, perhaps, for people who haven't thought much about the Trinity; or accept it because it's orthodox but can't see what difference it makes to life.

Quick-review: The Hare with Amber Eyes

I looked forward to reading this for a long time: the look, the unusual theme, the great reviews of what is seen as a classic.

And I'm going to say: well it was a good book.  I must be one of the few not overwhelmed by it though.

It traces the history of a set of Japanese miniature carvings as it passes through the generations of one family.  I found the first part of the book the slowest: the descriptions of the Parisian art scene in the 19th century - maybe for people who are interested that would be fascinating (as the minutiae of the Inklings would be for me).  But as the book progresses it does become more compelling:  the author's family is far from an ordinary one, and as the war years arrive the twists and turns become by turns remarkable and tragic.

A slow, relaxing read - and probably it needs reading again to fully appreciate it.  So:  good but hasn't hit the 'classic' level for me.

The inner essence of worship

The authenticating, inner essence of worship is being satisfied with Christ, cherishing Christ, treasuring Christ.  You can see how this definition of the essence of worship is free from Sunday worship services.  It encompasses all of life that flows from the heart.  But it is tremendously relevant for understanding what worship services should be about.  They are about "going hard after God".

John Piper, Brothers, We Are Not Professionals, p.236

Postman: digital information has little to do with our real problems

Among the implications of these beliefs is a loss of confidence in human judgment and subjectivity.  We have devalued the singular human capacity to see things whole in all their psychic, emotional and moral dimensions, and we have replaced this with faith in the powers of technical calculation...

The computer argues, to put it baldly, that the most serious problems confronting us at both personal and public levels require technical solutions through fast access to information otherwise unavailable.  I would argue that this is, on the face of it, nonsense.  Our most serious problems are not technical, nor do they arise from inadequate information.  If a nuclear catastrophe occurs it shall not be because of inadequate information.  Where people are dying of starvation, it does not occur because of inadequate information.  If families break up, children are mistreated, crime terrorises a city, education is impotent, it does not happen because of inadequate information.  Mathematical equations, instantaneous communication, and vast quantities of information have nothing whatever to do with any of these problems.  And the computer is useless in addressing them.

Technopoly, p.118&119

Quick review: Murder Must Advertise

...by Dorothy L Sayers

I'm gradually reading through the Wimsey novels in order.  What struck me about the first novel was not simply the fiendish plot, but also the revelation that the wise-cracking, one-liner detective was already around in the 1920s (did he start here?).  And though I have enjoyed the subsequent half-dozen books, that kind of easy wit has been gradually slipping and so, whilst still a complex mystery, became less entertaining along the way.

But we're back to form here - though sadly minus Bunter (Wimsey is a kind of uber-intelligent Bertie Wooster, complete with Jeeves/Bunter).  Also fascinating was to see the inner workings of a 1930s advertising agency.  Sayers had worked in one (and is, apparently, responsible for some of the more famous Guinness taglines), and her carefully drawn sketch of life in a London agency is a great backdrop.  What is interesting is how all contemporary it sounds:  aside from the change in technology, not a lot seems to have altered in the aims and ethics - or perhaps I should say: it's surprising how much of what we assume is contemporary has in fact always been around.  And Sayer's philosophical asides could have been written about posters you saw on the tube last week.

Postman: computers make us Joseh K's

The computer turns too many of us into Joseph K's.  It often functions as a kind of impersonal accuser which does not reveal, and is not required to reveal, the sources of the judgements made against us.  It is apparently sufficient that the computer has pronounced.

Technopoly, p115

Postman: the dominant metaphor of our age

[Bolter argues that the computer is] the dominant metaphor of our age;  it defines our age by suggesting a new relationship to information, to work, to power, and to nature itself.  That relationship can best be described by saying that the computer redefines humans as 'information processors' and nature as information to be processed.  The fundamental metaphorical message fo the computer, in short, is that we are machines - thinking machines, to be sure, but machines nonetheless...it subordinates the claims of our nature, our biology, our emotions, our spirituality.  The computer claims sovereignty over the whole range of human experience, and supports its claim by showing  that it 'thinks' better than we can.

Technopoly, p111

Postman: mindless acceptance

...This is not to say that the computer is a blight on the symbolic landscape;  only that, like medical technology, it has usurped powers and enforced mindsets that a fully attentive culture might have wished to deny it.

Technopoly p07

Quick Review: The Fringes of Power

...by John Colville

I first came across this man's name whist reading Roy Jenkins' biography of Churchill, and decided he'd be interesting to follow up.  His Downing Street Diaries I discovered not so long afterwards in a second-hand bookshop, and they have lain deep in the geological strata of my 'unread' pile for a very long time.

Was it worth digging it out?  Yes indeed, if you're interested in the goings-on of government during the war years and soon after.  Sir John was a secretary to Chamberlain, then Winston's private secretary, private secretary to Princess Elizabeth, and then Churchill again during his last years in power.  Initially not keen on Churchill, it's fascinating to see his opinion change to one of reverence (though not uncritical) and affection;  his character sketches of major figures;  the picture that builds up of how Downing Street and the Cabinet functions; his touching on now legendary events but from a contemporary, work-related perspective that as yet is unaware of the epic nature of things.

And I really enjoyed the sense of routine of the every-other-weekend trips to Chequers and how life went on there.

So, not for everyone - especially as it's a BIG book - but worthwhile if it's your thing.

Svenson: last post - more on rest

I have not gone so far as to suggest that the way of life in developing countries is superior or preferable to that of developed countries. I am only making the observation that these gracious and hospitable people are not exhausted, in body or spirit, whereas we often are. Those who would maintain that progress brings rest are wrong. We may have education, affluence, technology, leisure, and conveniences—but no rest.

“A rest-less work style produces a restless person,” notes Gordon MacDonald. “We do not rest because our work is done; we rest because God commanded it and created us to have a need for it.”

A. W. Tozer observed, “The heart’s fierce effort to protect itself from every slight, to shield its touchy honor from the bad opinion of friend and enemy, will never let the mind have rest.”

Margin (loc3211ff)  

Svenson: you can't do it all

Balance is necessary and attainable—not easy, but possible. When we understand that we are finite and that it is okay to be finite, then we can begin to accept our limits with comfort.  What we do we do well—but we do not do it all.

Margin (loc.3168)

Svenson: envy stops friendships

We relate better to others when the relationship is stabilized by contentment. If every encounter with my neighbor reminds me of something I covet, that relationship becomes tenuous. Envy makes it hard to have friends—everyone I know has something I do not.

Margin (loc.2625)

Fighting fear with fear (Tripp)

Fear can be an ungodly and dangerous thing. Fear can overwhelm your senses. It can distort your thinking. It can kidnap your desires. It can capture your meditation so that you spend more time worrying about what could be than considering the God who is. Fear can cause you to make bad decisions in the short term and fail to make good decisions in the long run. Fear can cause you to forget what you know and to lose sight of who you are. Fear can make you wish for control you will never have. It can cause you to distrust people you have reason to trust. It can cause you to be demanding rather than serving. It can cause you to run when you should stay and to stay when you really should run. Fear can make God look small and your circumstance loom large. Fear can make you seek from people what you will only get from the Lord. Fear can be the soil of your deepest questions and your biggest doubts. Your heart was wired to fear, because you were designed for life shaped by fear of God. But horizontal fear cannot be allowed to rule your heart, because if it does, it will destroy you and your ministry.

Fear is only ever conquered by fear. Awe of God really is the solution here. Only fear of God has the spiritual power to overwhelm all the horizontal fears that can capture you heart. These relational-situational-location fears are only ever put in the proper place and given their appropriate size by a greater fear---fear of the Lord. Perhaps this is a good portion of what is being said in Proverbs when it declares, "Fear of God is the beginning of wisdom." Allowing yourself to be twisted and turned by whatever fear seizes you at the moment is an unwise, unstable, and unproductive way of living. Living to alleviate fear never leads to being fear-free. It simply makes you more afraid of fear, more fear-alert, and ultimately more fearful. Only when God looms larger than anything you're facing can you be protected and practically freed from the fear that either paralyzes you or causes you to make foolish decisions.

Paul Tripp

Kant: everything is not everything

“Give a man everything he wants,” declared Immanuel Kant, “and at that moment, everything will not be everything.”

Margin (Loc.2531)

Svenson: Godliness and Contentment

Godliness is an attitude whereby what we want is to please God. Contentment, explains J. I. Packer, “is essentially a matter of accepting from God’s hand what He sends because we know that He is good and therefore it is good.”

Margin, loc.2459

Manton: the sun, not the town clock

"Know that the Lord has set apart him that is godly for Himself."  Therefore, it is no excuse for him to say, "I do but as others so."  He is to reckon his hours by the sun, not the town clock.

Puritan Golden Treasury, p44

Svenson: needs and desires and freedom

There is great confusion as to how we distinguish needs from desires. The list of what we call “needs” today is certainly much longer than the list was in 1900, which in turn was much longer than the list at the time of Christ. If the list expands each year, is this an expansion God approves of? “The cultivation and expansion of needs is … the antithesis of freedom,” teaches economist E. F. Schumacher. “Every increase of needs tends to increase one’s dependence on outside forces over which one cannot have control.”

Margin, (loc 2303f)

Svenson: doing the opposite of money

Money is powerful. It is so powerful, taught Jesus, that it competes head-to-head with God. “For Mammon’s work is the exact opposite of God’s work,” explains French sociologist Jacques Ellul. “Given this opposition, we understand why Jesus demands a choice between Mammon and God. He is not speaking of just any other power, just any other god; he is speaking of the one who goes directly against God’s action, the one who makes ‘nongrace’ reign in the world."  Before we can accomplish anything righteous with money, we first need to understand this power, confront it, and with the help of God, demolish it. How is it possible to break the substantial power money holds over us? Very simple—give it away. “There is one act par excellence which profanes money by going directly against the law of money, an act for which money is not made,” says Ellul. “This act is GIVING.”  

Margin (loc.2272f)