Arcade Fire in Books & Culture

While usually hating everything B&C has to say about music, this article on Arcade Fire is actually pretty decent. The author of the piece writes concerning their latest release Funeral,

The music speaks of, to, and for a culture in the throes of a vast meaning problem, and within the comprehensiveness of Arcade Fire's vision, any attempt to draw lines of separation between religion, entertainment, advertising, and politics will always fail to signify. The categories aren't functional. It's all ideology all the time.

Read the article here

Reading List

There are few things in life I enjoy more than reading. Blogs are a wonderful avenue for challenging readers (such as myself) to interact with the literature we read and think through the material instead of passively taking in the information just to let it decay in our minds. Books I am currently reading include the following:

WSCAL's faculty book Covenant, Justification, and Pastoral Ministry
If you attend Westminster Seminary California reading this book is as close as you can come to displaying some serious school spirit.

Heiko Oberman's Luther: Man Between God and the Devil
This is a tremendous biography of Luther placing him in the pre-enlightenment ancient world that he was firmly a part of where the spiritual realm was as real to the reformer as any material entity. Luther suffers the same fate as every other great historical figure, namely making him into ourselves. While I am only a few pages into Oberman's biography the fact that the author's goal is to understand Martin Luther on his own terms and in his own world makes picking up the book a worthwhile endeavor. It's probably also worth mentioning that when Dr. Clark endorses a book such as this one, it goes on my list of books to read that same day.

George Eliot's Middlemarch
One of the better memories I have from by undergraduate days at Moody was a literature class called "Images of Christ in the Novel." It was in this class that the importance of great literature in the life of thoughtful Christians and especially pastors was emphasized. While the message of the cross is ultimately scandalous and an offense to the unregenerate mind, great preaching is more than just a Powerpoint presentation jamming knowledge down the throats of parishioners. It is literary in itself. As preachers it is wise to read and contemplate great artisans and wordsmiths of the English language for it is this language that will be our vehicle of conveying the Gospel.
It is in the great novelists and poets of the English speaking world that we find language and speech worthy of emulation. In the great novels of the past are story-tellers that enliven distant worlds and transport readers out of the humdrum of everyday life into rich drama (this doesn't sound too unlike the job of the pastor ushering his listeners into the plot of redemptive history). And finally it is in the classics of literature that we interact with some of history's brightest and wisest minds. Minds that understood the human condition far better than many Christians pumping out volume after volume on how to get the most out of life (and God).
In Eliot's Middlemarch, much of the story revolves around a small provincial town in 19th century England and the rapid ideological, political, and societal changes that accompany a small town's transition into the modern world. The author's unorthodox religion is prevalent throughout the novel as it is the clergyman who are the most antagonistic of the changing world (Interestingly, Eliot who was an overall brilliant woman would translate D. F. Strauss' Life of Jesus into English further helping to illumine her religious background). It was Eliot's radical religious views during the time she lived that initially sparked my interest in Middlemarch and made me interested in picking it up at the Newbury Library book sale in Chicago a few years ago.
Now...I'm gonna go read now.

Inaugural Blog

Greetings and welcome to the blog of another seminary student who thinks he might have something to add to what the kids are calling the blogosphere. I have entered the world of blogging with a certain level of apprehension. Do I have anything to say? Only time will tell. Will anyone even read this? I know at least one person will (I love you babe). If nothing else this is an opportunity to hone my writing skills and interact with the culture around us. I love theology, history, politics, films, and music so there is a more than likely chance that these topics will be the center of discussion in subsequent posts. Anyway, thanks for reading and let the journey begin. Godspeed.