Watching this Japanese interview of The Matrix stars is as trippy
as the film itself. It was found on 15 Mind-Altering Facts About ‘The Matrix’ To Make You Say Whoa On Its 15th Anniversary.
(Oh, and Eugene Peterson was right!)
Monday, March 31, 2014
To Noah or not to Noah?
- Three Huge Things "Noah" Gets Right---And We Christians Have Gotten Wrong by Leslie Leyland Fields
- "All The Noah That’s Fit to Print" by Jeffrey Overstreet
- "The Evil God of ‘Noah’" by David Sessions
- "Why Christians Should Go See the Movie, 'Noah'” by Phil Cooke
- "I'm a Christian and I think 'Noah' deserves a four star review" by Matt Walsh
- Sympathy For The Devil: a Gnostic Noah by Brian Mattson
- No, Noah is not Gnostic. (Say that ten times fast!) by Peter Chattaway
- The silence, justice, mercy and love of God in Noah by Peter Chattaway
- Jerry Johnson, part 1: five positives of Noah,
- Jerry Johnson part 2:Five Negative Features about this Film
- Jerry Johnson part 3 Should we see it?
- Noah: A Midrash by Darren Aronofsky and Ari Handel (Interview)
- Darren Aronofsky's Noah tells the story by the book
- Christianity Today review
- Creationist Ken Ham on 'Noah': Worst Film I've Ever Seen ...
Sarah Kay: "If I Should Have a Daughter"/"Poetry is Like Pooping"
Sarah Kay's "If I Should Have a Daughter.." TED Talk on spoken word poetry and education--transcript here, video below.
See also her "Poetry is Like Pooping...and other writing tips" here.
Official website
Buechner, U2's Invisible, and 2001: A Space Odyssey
"The invisible manifests itself itself in the visible.
I think of the alphabet, of letters literally—A, B, C, D, E, F, G, all twenty-six of them. I think of how poetry, history, the wisdom of the sages and the holiness of the saints, all of this invisible comes down to us dressed out in their visible, alphabetic drab.
I am thinking of grace. I am thinking of the power beyond all power, the power that holds all things in manifestation, and I am thinking of this power as ultimately a Christ-making power, which is to say a power that makes Christs, which is to say a power that works through the drab and hubbub of our lives to make Christs of us before we're done or else, for our sakes, graciously to destroy us. In neither case, needless to say, is the process to be thought of as painless.
I am thinking of salvation. In the movie called 2001, A Space Odyssey, a man goes hurtling through the universe to the outermost limits of the universe, the outermost limits of space and time. Through huge crevasses of racing light he passes finally beyond space and time altogether, and you sit there in the midnight of the movie theater watching hIm and wondering what fantastic secret he will discover there at the very secret heart of the fantastic itself, and then comes the movie's most interesting moment. Because when his space pod finally comes to rest, what the man steps out to discover is not some blinding cosmic revelation, some science-fiction marvel, but a room. He steps out into an almost everyday room of floor and ceiling and walls with a table in it and some chairs and a half-filled bookshelf and a vase of flowers and a bed. And in this room the man dies and is born again. At the heart of reality there is a room. At the heart of reality there is a heart beating life into all that lives and dies. Clack-clack."
-Link, Frederick Buechner; Originally published in The Alphabet of Grace (HT Tim Powers)
Sunday, March 30, 2014
the pope of physics: Francis on "Time is greater than space"
In a section of his "The Joy of the Gospel" (APOSTOLIC EXHORTATIONEVANGELII GAUDIUM) called
The common good and peace in society,
Rock star Pope Francis covers four "greater than"s:
- Time is greater than space
- Unity prevails over conflict
- Realities are more important than ideas
- The whole is greater than the part
It's the time/space item I want to repost here, though do read the whole section to get the flow.
Some helpful connections between the pope's comments and Russian filmaker's
Tarkovsky's thoughts here.
Francis:
Time is greater than space
222. A constant tension exists between fullness and limitation. Fullness evokes the desire for complete possession, while limitation is a wall set before us. Broadly speaking, “time” has to do with fullness as an expression of the horizon which constantly opens before us, while each individual moment has to do with limitation as an expression of enclosure. People live poised between each individual moment and the greater, brighter horizon of the utopian future as the final cause which draws us to itself. Here we see a first principle for progress in building a people: time is greater than space.
223. This principle enables us to work slowly but surely, without being obsessed with immediate results. It helps us patiently to endure difficult and adverse situations, or inevitable changes in our plans. It invites us to accept the tension between fullness and limitation, and to give a priority to time. One of the faults which we occasionally observe in sociopolitical activity is that spaces and power are preferred to time and processes. Giving priority to space means madly attempting to keep everything together in the present, trying to possess all the spaces of power and of self-assertion; it is to crystallize processes and presume to hold them back. Giving priority to time means being concerned about initiating processes rather than possessing spaces. Time governs spaces, illumines them and makes them links in a constantly expanding chain, with no possibility of return. What we need, then, is to give priority to actions which generate new processes in society and engage other persons and groups who can develop them to the point where they bear fruit in significant historical events. Without anxiety, but with clear convictions and tenacity.
224. Sometimes I wonder if there are people in today’s world who are really concerned about generating processes of people-building, as opposed to obtaining immediate results which yield easy, quick short-term political gains, but do not enhance human fullness. History will perhaps judge the latter with the criterion set forth by Romano Guardini: “The only measure for properly evaluating an age is to ask to what extent it fosters the development and attainment of a full and authentically meaningful human existence, in accordance with the peculiar character and the capacities of that age”.[182]
225. This criterion also applies to evangelization, which calls for attention to the bigger picture, openness to suitable processes and concern for the long run. The Lord himself, during his earthly life, often warned his disciples that there were things they could not yet understand and that they would have to await the Holy Spirit (cf. Jn 16:12-13). The parable of the weeds among the wheat (cf. Mt 13:24-30) graphically illustrates an important aspect of evangelization: the enemy can intrude upon the kingdom and sow harm, but ultimately he is defeated by the goodness of the wheat. link
pope confesses
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Pope Francis Surprises Priest, Kneels Before Him And Confesses His Sins In St. Peter's Basilica
(Reuters) - Pope Francis surprised his own master of ceremonies on Friday by confessing his sins to an ordinary priest in St. Peter's Basilica.The pope was presiding at service intended to show the importance he attaches to the sacrament of reconciliation, commonly known as confession.
After reading a sermon, he was to have gone to an empty confessional booth to hear confessions from ordinary faithful as some 60 priests scattered around the huge church did the same.
His master of ceremonies, Monsignor Guido Marini, pointed him toward the empty booth but the pope went straight to a another one, knelt before a surprised priest, and confessed to him for a few minutes.
He then went back to the empty one and heard the confessions of a number of faithful.
The pope goes to confession regularly but in private. link
--
related:
"Pope Francis, You Had Me at Hello, and Lost Me at Sinner"
Saturday, March 29, 2014
Theology of the selfie/shelfie
Of course the groom wants a "selfie."
I googled "theology of the selfie," to see who had theologized on the concept.
My favorite find was the one I was already aware of:
Tim Neufeld on the famous/infamous Obama selfie at Mandela's funeral.
Link:
A funeral, a selfie and biblical interpretation
Here are some a typical posts on the selfishness of the selfie:
Here's a link to a whole 46-minute sermon video (which btw includes a live cow) called:
Improve Your Selfie : A Theology of Selfie
Of course, I love that the pope poses for the "selfies" of young people..
Here's Vincent J. Vera with a "shelfie":
I love Vincent, so I once had to get a selfie with him (and Ken; also well-loved) to prove that I know him:
See my facebook post below, or click here to see on facebook, and post your own shelfie..
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The amazing Scott Jones (our young elder at third day fresno and a "pensive intellectual" spy and bibliophile) and I have recently been comparing the stack/stash of books on our (respective!) bedside nightstands. Here's my eclectic assortment..don't make fun!. (honored to tag some of the authors; Brian J Dodd,Jerry Walls, Anne Marie Miller Dallas Lon Elder...oh, and notice The Wainscott Weasel) We thought it might be fun to see what anyone else's stack looks like. @Scott. post your photo, and anyone else. post theirs. Let's make it a viral meme(:..— with Scott Jones. |
P.S.: See photo below; I'm apparently a Calviminian. Some folks wouldn't dare put these books on the same shelf/shelfie. But I was predestined to use my free will to post this:
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