Here is more from Rachel Evans on the “Patriot’s Bible.” Exactly right.
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Apologies
Apparently my blog was hijacked today. Apologies if it hit your virus filter, and apologies also for the messy look while I clean this up.
This is a fascinating video. I think all Christians should have to take church history course. It fleshes so many things out and puts so many things into perspective.
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Barth on the Center of Orthodoxy
There is no point in dogmatic thinking and speaking if in it all systematic clarity and certainty is not challenged by the fact that the content of the Word of God is God’s work and activity, and therefore God’s free grace, which as such escapes our comprehension and control, upon which, reckoning with it in faith, we can only meditate, and for which we can only hope. It is not from an external attack of doubt or criticism but from its own very concrete focal point and foundation, from the source of all Christian and therefore dogmatic certitude, that all its insights and first principles, the nexus of its axioms and inferences derive; and even these statements are constantly questioned both as a whole and in detail, and their temporariness and incompleteness exposed. The focal point and foundation themselves determine that in dogmatics strictly speaking there are no comprehensive views, no final conclusions and results. There is only the investigation and teaching which take place in the act of dogmatic work and which, strictly speaking, must continually begin again at the beginning in every point. The best and most significant thing that is done in this matter is that again and again we are directed to look back to the centre and foundation of it all.
–Karl Barth (Church Dogmatics 1/2, 868)
My article “Patent Damages Reform and the Shape of Patent Law” has been published in the current volume of the Boston University Law Review. The article provides an overview of Congressional proposals to change the way damages are calculated in patent cases and offers alternative suggestions for reform in light of empirical data and recent case law. It includes an original empirical study of damage awards in patent infringement cases.
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Missional: Generous Orthodoxy
Dave Dunbar, President of Biblical Seminary, at which I’m taking some theology classes, sets out in his current Missional Journal Biblical’s understanding of the Missional posture as an evangelical institution devoted to a generous orthodoxy. I like this description of generous orthodoxy:
The intention of the phrase “generously orthodox” is to describe the playing field for our school. The boundaries of the field are the boundaries of “right teaching” which is what we understand by the term “orthodox.” I will speak more about this in a future article focusing on conviction three in our statement: The Indispensable Significance of the Christian Tradition. The point to be made is that we believe there is right teaching and wrong teaching, there is orthodoxy and heresy, and we know the difference. In other words, there are boundaries to the playing field and Biblical Seminary plays in-bounds.
On the other hand, we believe in a generous orthodoxy which means that we treat one another charitably as we play on the field. We certainly recognize that people sometimes step out of bounds–intentionally or accidentally–and yet our primary concern is not to function as referees but as players. It is one of the unhappy legacies of Christendom that many Christians have chosen to function as referees calling other Christians “out of bounds.” The result? Too much time has been spent precisely defining the boundaries and pointing out the faults of other players. Generous orthodoxy means that we will concentrate more on being the players that Christ would have us be.
At Biblical we believe that God is calling the church in North America to understand that the culture around us is post-Christian. Ours is again a missionary situation which calls for an all-hands-on-deck effort of Christians across denominational and confessional lines. The point of generous orthodoxy is not just greater harmony among believers–not a bad idea!–but greater effectiveness of united witness for the sake of God’s kingdom.
This posture is exactly why I decided to work on my theology classes at Biblical.
“Then when Herod saw that he had been tricked by the magi, he became very enraged, and sent and slew all the male children who were in Bethlehem and its vicinity, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had determined from the Magi.” Matthew 3:16.
Herods must be resisted, but we must also not forget that the fear that possessed Herod’s life is not absent from our own lives. “All Jerusalem” was also frightened by the news of this child’s birth. And the same fear continues to possess cultures — our culture — that believe they have no time or energy for children. Abortion is one of the names for the fear of time that children make real. Children rightly frighten us, pulling us as they do into the unknown future. But that pull is the lure of love that moves the sun and the stars, the same love that overwhelmed the wise men with joy. It is the love that makes the church an alternative to the world that fears the child.
Hauerwas, Commentary on Matthew, Chapter 2.
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New Ambient Tune
Here’s a new ambient tune, “Harp,” using a pedal steel virtual instrument I just acquired. Enjoy.
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Holy Skin and Bone
Another nice site by a Calvin guy: philosopher Kevin Corcoran’s Holy Skin and Bone.
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Youth
This is one of my brother’s photos on the JPG Magazine site:
