where am I?

Well, more blogging news to report.

I've accepted the invite to join WordPress, graciously extended by Travis Stanley. My Square Space site is still up for the time being, links and all, as I transfer things over to the WordPress blog.

This site will, as far as I know, remain active. Don't, however, look for many new posts here.

testing, testing

Sorry about the lack of posts recently. Anyway, I've been toying around with a new blogging format. You can see the results here. Let me know what you think, but don't go changing your links just yet. I may be back here when my trial at Square Space runs out.

Memento Vivere: Podcasting and Classics

There's some great stuff in this post on podcasting. Now, if only I had an iPod...

newnan, ga

So, we've been in Newnan for a month -- time for a bit of reflection.

The job is going well -- so well that some days I think I could do this for several more years. That's not an idea that I allow myself to entertain for too long, mainly because I know that in reality I would be miserable. But, really, this year is running so much more smoothly than last year. Not even my worst group of kids can get me down like one bad day would have last year. I also find that I don't dread going in to work in the morning like I did last year -- decent classroom management will do that for you...

Getting used to Newnan has been a little bit more uncertain. We love our apartment -- it has been nice having a place to come home to that is not a 2-hour's drive away through downtown Atlanta. The town itself is a different matter. It is difficult to know just what to make of this place and the people who live here -- lots of disaffected teenagers, etc. We've found a congregation with which to worship and some wonderful people there. We've also begun to find decent restaurants/coffee shops to hang out at.

All in all, I'm looking forward to autumn and to cooler days -- and to visits from family and friends over the next couple of months. My good friend, Mark, was down this weekend -- we got to go hiking in Warm Springs even though it was probably too warm to do so. Spending time with him has got me looking forward to Furman's Homecoming in late October and to reconnecting with our Greenville friends.

Book News:

The setup of the Latin textbook that I use has caused me to delve more deeply into Roman social history and physical infrastructure (roads, aqueducts, gardens, etc.). Some things on my plate right now:

The Roman Family by Suzanne Dixon

Slavery and Society at Rome by Keith Bradley

Greek and Roman Slavery by Thomas Wiedemann

The Roads of the Romans by Staccioli

I do feel now that I have a more solid grasp on some issues relating to the family that will help me approach Paul's letters -- especially the moral codes in Eph. and Col. more knowledgeably (I plan to read Wayne Meek's The First Urban Christians soon).

merton

"We too often forget that faith is a matter of questioning and struggle before it becomes one of certitude and peace. You have to doubt and reject everything else in order to believe firmly in Christ, and after you have begun to believe, your faith itself must be tested and purified. Christianity is not merely a set of foregone conclusions. Faith tends to be defeated by the burning presence of God in mystery, and seeks refuge in him, flying to comfortable social forms and safe convictions in which purification is no longer an inner battle but a matter of outward gesture."

- Thomas Merton

labor day weekend

Just returned from a weekend trip to Nashville to be with family. As some of you know, my grandfather suffered a minor stroke last week, so it was particularly opportune for us to go and be with him. He has recovered admirably: he had regained all of his speech and motor capabilities within 48 hours, but it shook all of us up nonetheless.

While we were at home, I got to go up to Bowling Green, Kentucky, and spend some time with Dan Greeson. We worshipped with him at a new congo there -- the church at Bowling Green. We were tremendously blessed by our time there on Sunday.

This congo has taken positive steps in breaking some of the bonds of traditionalism and toward revitalizing their worship in meaningful ways. This is particularly apparent with respect to Holy Communion. The Lord's Supper has been a topic that I've spent quite a bit of time on recently, reading everything that I can get my hands on -- both inside and outside of the Stone-Campbell tradition. I've read John Mark Hicks' Come To The Table and some others advocating Lord's Supper reform among churches of Christ and have been intellectually persuaded by what they had to say.

I had never experienced it, however. The church at Bowling Green is the only congo among NI churches of Christ to my knowledge which has thought through and implemented changes in the practice of Communion and last night I got to be a part of that.

It was an amazing occasion to sit around a table with brothers and sisters in Christ and share the body and blood of the Lord and discuss the meaning of the Supper as we were participating in it. Gone was the silent, funerary character of our typical practice of Communion -- in its place was good discussion and sharing about the Lord Jesus Christ and a true meal setting in which these discussions could take place.

More soon...

Pat Robertson

Scot McKnight's blog contains a good discussion on Pat Robertson's suggestion that the US government "take out" Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

Particularly worthwhile was this nugget from poster Bob Robinson:

Pat Robertson represents the syncretism in American Christianity that has allowed the politics of the Right to blend into our Christian faith. Most Christians I know cannot differentiate between the politics of Rush Limbaugh and the Lordship of Jesus Christ. The Christian Scriptures are constantly warning us against syncretism, when aspects of one religion are assimilated into another thus changing the purity of the original faith.

Robertson’s syncretistic Christianity is not the pure religion of Jesus Christ—it is a syncretism of Christianity with American capitalism (because of the oil interests in Venezuela) and extreme right-wing politics (because of Chavez’ leftist agenda). This syncretism has taken Robertson “captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy which depends on human tradition” (Colossians 2:8) so much that he is no longer following Jesus Christ—it is no longer Christianity.

What’s sad is that he does not even know it. What’s sadder is that many of his viewers don’t know it either.