This Pilgrim's Progress

Judge Alita

"W" finally made a choice for SCOTUS that is worthy of the office. Alita sounds like a good man with the right credentials for the job.  The left is hoppin mad, which is good because it means that Bush selected someone who may help reverse the leftist, "activist" bent of the current bench. It will be interesting to hear a real debate now on the issues that matter!!

What a great way to start the week!!!!!!

"Mind of the Maker" part 2

Well, I finished reading Sayer's "Mind of the Maker".  It was a good read but not quite what I was looking for. Her theme in this book is to explain the nature of the Trinity using the analogy of the creation process of an artist or writer. 

It gave me some new insights into understanding the nature of the Godhead as the Trinity, but I'm not sure it gave me any new insights into the topic of aesthetics, art, beauty, etc. from a Christian perspective. I would still recommend it to anyone who struggles with trinitarian doctrine. 

One of the things she just brushed on was "What explains bad writing or bad art. " She explained it as the result of the author or artist straying from the intrinsic nature of the Idea or Concept they are attempting to create in their art. I think that has a great insight for when Christians create bad art, but how about pagans?? 

I often think of pagan art as an expression of God's reality or creation through the filter of the pagan's cultural framework or worldview. Some of it may be real close and even beautiful, and some of it can be real bad and ugly as it more expresses man's sin rather than God's nature. An example would be Classical Greek sculpture versus Classical Mayan or Aztec art.

I think the Greeks understood a lot about the generally revealed creation, whereas the Meso-Americans seem to be clearly in thrall to their demonic and blood-thirsty "gods" that demanded human sacrifice and constant warfare to keep them in check. 

I wouldn't call Meso-American art "beautiful" because of its rather horrific themes, and it's designs seem to have their own strange formalism (like Egyptian art) that has nothing to do with reflecting the beauty of creation.

Pre-classical Greek art had a stiff and wooden quality to it too.  The Greeks were clearly looking for truth, unfortunately their search was inward rather than outward. Interestingly enough the Byzantine Greeks went back to formalism (rather than naturalism) in their iconic Eastern Orthodox art.

To be continued.......

"Mind of the Maker"

While looking for stuff on Christian Aesthetics, I just located Dorothy Sayer's essay "Mind of the Maker" on the internet. The CBI has it in it's online library:

http://www.worldinvisible.com/library/dlsayers/mindofmaker/mind.c.htm

So far, it's a fascinating read. I may need to print it out so I can linger on and ponder the concepts. She has incredible insight and even though the language is not simplistic, it is very readable.

Christian Aesthetics

Well, one interesting thing I found out about the topic: You get the hits you want if you spell it with the leading "a" (i.e. aesthetics) rather than just "esthetics". Googling "esthetics" you get all these sites for beauty treatments, cosmetics, spa's etc. --- I guess the "beauty" industry is calling itself the "esthetics" industry these days!! I call it "gilding the lily", which only works of course if your lily is new and pretty...faded, dried-up lilies don't look any better covered with gold!!

Anyways I'm finding some interesting stuff on "aesthetics". The Trinity Foundation had a rather long paper on the topic by Gordon Clark ( Download 067b-ChristianAesthetics.pdf ), that was somewhat interesting and a little pompous. I don't agree with his assertion of music being lowest in the hierarchy of  the arts, unless we are going from the concrete to the abstract. Music is often paired with words as poetry, prose,  saga, etc.,  due to it's ability to accent and bring out the emotions and senses that are being communicated through language. None of the "arts" touch so much of our core as music does, affecting the heart, mind, and spirit.

Another statement of Clark's that I viscerally disagree with is:   "In any case, a work of art need not be beautiful. The ugly can also be artistic." He states this in context of discussing how difficult it is to define beauty. My opinion is that if it doesn't strike one as "beautiful" in some sense, then it isn't art...regardless how "artistic" it may be. There's a whole landfill of "art" that can be described as "artistic", but is not beautiful by anyone's definition!! Usually it's funded by the government, or passed off by some Marxist who's trying to make a statement about some sort of "class warfare". 

I don't think we necessarily need to define beauty, but I think we need to keep beauty in mind when discussing Christian aesthetics. One thing that stands out when we look at God's creation, it that it is "very good" or "beautiful".  I would think we could define "bad" art as that which fails to have intrinsic beauty.  Ugliness happens pretty easily and doesn't require any talent or effort to produce. Man since the Fall seems to have some propensities towards sin or ugliness. When we are focused on God, we seem more capable of righteousness and of creating beauty.  I don't think Christians necessarily have a lock on this, by the way. I think the "general revelation" that is in every human being is able to inspire him towards beauty, and some people have a talent for this in spite of their lack of faith.

^"And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good." Genesis 1:31

Christian Aesthetics

I've been trying to define in my own mind what constitutes the esthetic standards for a Christian.  Partly because I'm trying to teach my own chidren to be discerning when it comes to "The Arts", but also to re-examine my own life and walk in this area.

We usually don't think of music and art in terms of our theology, or at least I don't always, but I feel somehow that I should be. We are assailed constantly in our culture with images and music that is less than edifying, but yet holds our attention and captures the moment from us.

Instinctively we all seem to have developed tastes in certain kinds of art, music, architecture, and even styles in clothes and furniture. How do these tastes develop, and how are they molded by our world-view and belief system, if indeed they are?

I've been googling for info on esthetics, and it's amazing what isn't out there!! If anyone has some suggestions for sources on this topic, please leave me a comment with your recommendations. I've been searching for some succinct and clear writing on the subject, but all I've found seems somewhat "deep" and requiring a large investment of time. Maybe I will need to make that investment eventually, but I am hoping to find something that will help me form up the questions I have in a more complete form.

At this time of year we get a huge dose of the "dark-side" with all of the Holloween nonsense. It seems our culture increasingly gravitates towards evil. We are indeed a "culture of death" rivaling only the Aztecs and Mayans in our gore. This may not exactly be an esthetics issue, but I'm beginning to see it more and more as such.

Perhaps whatever rules our heart's and mind's  is also what forms and informs our esthetic sense?

"Slouching Towards Miers"

Robert Bork wrote an excellent editorial for the Wall Street Journal concerning the Miers nomination to SCOTUS. It's at http://www.opinionjournal.com/editorial/feature.html?id=110007424 . You might have to register to view the article, but it's well worth the extra key strokes!!

The subtitle "Bush shows himself to be indifferent, if not hostile, to conservative values." is a good summary. If the White House is still in doubt as to what the furor is all about, this article should illuminate it for them!!

Culture Wars

Sometimes I think I was born in the wrong century, or maybe the wrong half century!! Things I hate about modern pop-culture:

- Tattoos!! It's amazing that people would mutilate themselves with these hideous things.

- Body Piercings!!! - even more gross!!

- Metal music.  Not so much for the style, which I don't care for either, but rather more for the content which seems to tend toward the very dark and evil side of life.  Is "Death-Metal" a redundant term?? Most metal seems to glorify death,  sort of like our culture does.

My main principle for life-style is  "does it glorify the Lord, does it respect the temple that are bodies are for the Holy Spirit? also -- Would it cause my witness as a Christian to suffer, or my example as a father to suffer, or my relationship with my spouse to suffer?? "  I try to live my life as an open book. I'm not always successful, but I usually go to bed at night with a clear conscience.

I have my own sins that I struggle with. The overt sexuality in our media is one. You'll be watching some mystery or comedy on TV and suddenly you are watching a scene that would have been considered porn 20 years ago (and sometimes not even "soft" porn). I'm attracted to that, as most men are, but I'm trying to be more conscious of it and turn to something else or turn it off when we are being assaulted with un-wanted titillation and sensuality. It's important for men to guard against what the eye is attracted to, we can be so easily seduced from the righteous path.   

I won't even mention the Internet, where it's even more insidious, except to say -- Men, invest in good blocking software, and then forget the password once you set it to block porn and violence!! Have your wives set the password if need be.  The content filter we have is a good one, and I highly recommend it -- BSafe Online -- it's a good product and seems to work well with few problems ( http://www.bsafehome.com ). It also has  antivirus, anti-spam and popup blocking features too.

I do find that the more in-tune with Christ I am, the easier it is to fight against the culture's influence in your life.  I've been trying to be more deliberate about my spiritual life -- Christian walk -- lately. I'm striving to make spiritual disciplines more a part of my life than they have been. It's been heartening to see almost immediate affects too from that effort, Praise the Lord. Christ really is the only path to the Light of righteousness. We are ill-equipped to fight the Deceiver apart from Christ's strength.

Soli Deo Gloria!

Harriet Mier

I think the President stubbed his toe on his nomination of Harriet Mier for the SCOTUS.  He's definitely infuriated conservatives with this nomination of a judicial midget whom we have no idea of her philosophy on the Constitution or the judiciary's role in interpreting it.  It looks like Bush and the Republican leadership want to duck the debate on the role of SCOTUS, and the issues in the attendant cultural war over traditional values versus postmodern relativism.

They (Bush and Republican leadership) seem to be determined to "snatch Defeat from the Jaws of Victory", and not exercise the power they were given in the last elections. You could be sure that the Democrats would not be so shy about wielding power!!!

I think it demonstrates a bit of moral cowardice on the administration's part to want to duck the "Great Debate" and just get their nomination confirmed with the least muss and fuss. It may be a good move politically (and THAT is highly debatable!!), but it is definitely a bad move for a Statesman or someone who wants to leave the legacy of Statesmanship. I don't think we'll be celebrating "W's" memory like we have celebrated Reagan's.

I am heartened to hear Conservatives raise the "hue and cry" over this nomination, and I hope they don't cave in to the "moderates" who are dismissing their concerns as trivial or inconsequential. I'm particularly aggrieved by Hugh Hewitt's take on this issue. Hugh has shown his true colors as a "moderate"  who places more importance to party loyalty than to fighting the culture war.

Joshua Bell

We went to the San Diego Symphony's season opener this Saturday. Joshua Bell was the featured soloist. My wife and daughter enjoyed him immensely. I had trouble dealing with his physical antics on stage while playing. I also didn't think his tone was what it should have been. I expected his violin to have a larger "voice", but it was a soft sounding instrument, probably better for chamber music than a full-on orchestra piece. He definitely is no Itzhak Perlman or Jascha Heifetz.  The audience gave him a huge ovation, but I didn't think he deserved 3 calls. The Symphony played the Pines of Rome and did a great job. They DID deserve the standing ovation and 3 calls.

REI - good outfit

Well, after much deliberation I finally decided to return my Brunton Optimus Nova backpacking stove.  I returned it to REI and they gave me a full credit on it.  I also brought in my backpack and exchanged it for a new one of the same make and model (it had the broken zipper on the front pocket).  I'm glad I bought from REI, they didn't give me any static about the returns and were very helpful.

I decided to give the backpack another chance, since I was already familar with it and I realized that how stuff is packed makes a huge difference.  The pack is an Osprey Crescent 85, one of their newer models. It did hold up pretty well, so I know its a good quality pack. I just need to become more experienced at packing and carrying it.

I'm now trying to come up with a backpack trip in our local desert, Anza-Borrego. I'll probably take the family or a small group of a couple of friends and their sons.

And, I still haven't edited my photos or loaded them into a album yet. I've been too busy with other stuff, but hopefully I'll get to it soon.