Links and excerpts

Jurgen Moltmann on our conception of God and ourselves:

Without a revolution in the concept of God, however, there will be no revolutionary faith. Without God's liberation from idolatrous images produced by anxiety and hubris, there will be no liberating theology. Man always unfolds his humanity in relation to the divinity of his God, and he experiences himself in relationship to what appears to him as the highest being. He directs his life toward a highest value. He decides, who he is by his ultimate concerns. As Martin Luther said: "Where you put the trust of your heart, that in fact is your God." That holds true for the Christian faith just as for every secular faith.

In fact, there is no true theology of hope which is not first of all a theology of the cross.


Eugene Peterson on Annie Dillard on worship and creation:

Pilgrim at Tinker Creek is a contemplative journal of her attendance at the theater (of God's creation) over the course of a year. She is breathless in awe. She cries and laughs. In turn, she is puzzled and dismayed. She is not an uncritical spectator. During intermissions, she does not scruple to find fault with either writer or performance-all is not to her liking and some scenes bring her close to revulsion. But she always returns to the action and ends up on her feet applauding, Encore! Encore! "I think that the dying pray at the last not 'please,' but 'thank you,' as a guest thanks his host at the door. Failing from airplanes the people are crying thank you, thank you, all down the air; and the cold carriages draw up for them on the rocks. Divinity is not playful. The universe was not made in jest but in solemn incomprehensible earnest. By a power that is unfathomably secret, and holy, and fleet. There is nothing to be done about it, but ignore it, or see. And like Billy Bray I go my way, and my left foot says 'Glory,' and my right foot says 'Amen': in and out of Shadow Creek, upstream and down, exultant, in a daze, dancing, to the twin silver trumpets of praise."

Got your cars Straight? On Automobile Gender and Sexuality

John McCain on the War

Pope Benedict, his new book on Jesus, and criticism of the West
"Only if something extraordinary happened, if the figure and words of Jesus radically exceeded all the hopes and expectations of his age, can his Crucifixion and his effectiveness be explained."