Paul’s Paradoxical Wisdom of the Christian Life

I’m not sure if there are “Dune nerds” any more but that has been a thing in the past.

THE FEAR LITANY

A Dune nerd wasn’t merely someone who read or even appreciated Frank Herbert’s science fiction novel, Dune. It was someone who was able to recite the “Litany against Fear” and enjoyed doing so:

“I must not fear.
Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.”

Solomon’s Wisdom Explains Why Neera Tanden Won’t Be Confirmed

(Originally posted on March 9, 2021 at Townhall.com)

Last week Team Biden withdrew the nomination of Neera Tanden as Director of the Office of Management and Budget. The media reported that she would be appointed to another position in the Administration, just not one requiring Senate approval. This is a political story but it is a lesson for many of us in our financial and other life endeavors. Tanden had offended enough Senators through her Twitter account that she failed to gain majority support.

While the right of free speech seems simple, it’s actually quite complex. A guarantee that the civil government will not punish you for anything you say may be significant, but it also may induce a false sense of security. If everyone in society is free to respond to your words, then unpopular speech could have serious consequences without government reprisals of any kind or without any violence at all. Letting one’s faith in government passivity induce euphoric utterances without care or caution would mean ignoring other consequences.

Building a Better Future

[I wrote this last year but never published it.]

***

We all want a better future. We want to see progress. We hope the next generation will prosper more than we did.

But how much control do we have over what the future looks like?

I ask this because it is common to view human history as an ongoing construction project and certain visionary famous persons as architects in that process.

But then Solomon kills the mood:

Individualism is not Selfishness

People commonly oppose something they call “individualism” against another thing they call “collectivism.” Either they insist these must be “balanced” or else they champion one at the expense of the other.

There are concrete situations where one must make a decision that seems like you are dealing with these competing values of this sort. If a homeless family asks you for some money, and you give it to them, that could be understood as you helping out more people than one (the family) at the expense of one (yourself). But this doesn’t strike me as a plausible justification for thinking in these general terms.

Judges is About Needing God as King, not Man

The book of Judges is not a lesson in how Israel needed a king. It is the opposite.

I’m not saying that Judges rules out the possibility that a righteous king could have helped with some of Israel’s problems. Moses had allowed that the tribes of Israel might choose a king in the future, and gave them God’s rules for a king (Deuteronomy 17:14-20).

But Judges isn’t a story about Israelites refusing a king. It is a story about attempts to exalt a man as king and the catastrophic results of those attempts. From the story of Gideon onward, Judges is a history of rulers who began toying with dynastic ambitions. Then the book ends with with two horrific stories. In those stories we meet the statement, “In those days there was no king in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 17:6; 19:25 ESV; see also 18:1; 19:1). But those stories are about degenerate Levites and come at the end of a history of God stopping his chosen judges from becoming kings.

Hereditary Guilt and the Imputation of Adam’s Sin…

Below is my award-winning church history paper, written in the late nineties. I want to thank Theopolis Institute for posting it and re-introducing the ideas to new readers.

I’ve heard that some people base their (erroneous as far as I can tell) views of hereditary guilt from a view of the imputation of Adam’s sin. Since I plan to put together my writings on (the myth of) hereditary guilt for Theopolis Institute, it seemed wise to put forth my view of the imputation of Adam’s sin, so I can refer to it. I generally agree with what I see as the Nevin-Dabney approach. I certainly don’t think other theories should be taken for granted as the only correct view.

John Williamson Nevin’s Controversy With Charles Hodge
Over the Imputation of Adam’s Sin
(with a Comparison to Robert L. Dabney)

Viral Anxiety Requires Infectious Wisdom

At the time I write this, many in the United States are under some kind of “lock-down” order. But, thanks to the internet, people are still able to communicate with each other. And people have differing opinions on which medical or scientific projection about our current pandemic is most likely to prove accurate. And they write to each other about them…

We might be doing so “under the influence,” if you will, of angst: “Anxiety in a man’s heart weighs him down, but a good word makes him glad” (Proverbs 12:25 ESV).

Proverbs is Not Pelagian, Part Two (of two)

Proverbs is filled with warnings against sin and exhortations to keep God’s commandments. It constantly sets before the reader the two ways one can choose that result in two different destinies. Thus it is easy to get the idea that Proverbs is teaching wisdom as salvation by good works.

Part of the problem with that, which I pointed out in my earlier post, is that Proverbs understands all people to be sinners in constant need of forgiveness. The other reason is that our Lord Jesus Christ needed to grow in wisdom in his earthly life.

Disordered Eating?

I don’t recommend Ted Talks often, or often write about diet on Christian blogs. But this presentation by a secular nutritionist seems to approach the borders of Eucharistic Theology.

I am not posting this for her recommendations of eating more plants. I am posting it for her acknowledgment of the social and personal significance of eating food. I recommend especially the beginning and the end of this video.

Her talk made me think…

The Illusion of the Pyramid Society

The “pyramid society” is a well known concept–the architectural analogy for the totalitarian state managing all of society and making it function better than it ever could without such a controlling political authority. The few at the top guide the rest beneath them.

But the power of the image relies on a hidden reversal of reality. The pyramid is supposed to represent a stable society in which the top directs the rest.

John Williamson Nevin’s Controversy With Charles HodgeOver the Imputation of Adam’s Sin(with a Comparison to Robert L. Dabney)

John Williamson Nevin’s Controversy With Charles Hodge
Over the Imputation of Adam’s Sin
(with a Comparison to Robert L. Dabney)