Calvin's Institutes, Battles edition: page 97

Why does Calvin have the reputation for being austere and impersonal? Commenting on Exodus 34:6-7, he writes, "Thereupon his powers are mentioned, by which he is shown to us not as he is in himself, but as he is toward us: so that this recognition of him consists more in living experience than in vain and high-flown speculation."

Inferno

Since I'm on holiday, I read an update and rewrite of Dante's Inferno by two science-fiction writers, largely on the strength of a favorable write-up on the First Things website. While it wasn't bad by a long shot, it also wasn't particularly engaging. Part of the problem was I couldn't be bothered to care much about the protaganist; a larger part was that once it became apparent that there was an escape from Hell, it didn't seem so awful to be consigned there.

Perhaps there's a reason the Bible doesn't give too many details about either Heaven or Hell: they're both more interesting when their particulars are left up to the imagination.

Theses on Preaching: Pronouns

Mrs. Curmudgeon and I are visiting Canadian Pastor and Pastor's Wife outside of Toronto in celebration of our 10th anniversary, and I was graciously invited to preach yesterday. (Yes, on Independence Day and while the Queen of Canada was in the actual neighborhood. My new motto: "barely avoiding international incidents since 1970".) During the post-game analysis, Canadian Pastor noted I had used the first person plural during the afternoon sermon. This was notable because the single greatest homiletical influence on me has been Jay Adams' Preaching with Purpose, where he argues (forcefully) that preachers should use the second person when addressing the congregation. Adams observes that this is how God addresses his people throughout Scripture, and therefore contends this is how God's ambassador ought address them as well.

The thing is, the first person plural has been creeping into my sermons over the last few years. Since I work from an outline, my preaching has a large improvisational component, and so what actually comes out of my mouth is largely an intuitive choice. Consequently, I don't know why my practice has been changing, although (surprise!) I now have a theory.

English is interesting not because it lacks a second person plural, but because (outside the American South) the second person singular and plural are indistinguishable. During a sermon, the congregation has no way of telling whether the pastor's "you" addresses the individual or the assembled group. While reflection would almost necessarily dictate the latter, I suspect that during the homiletical moment the individual unreflectively hears the former; that is, he tends to think the pastor is preaching at him directly. In that psychological context, "us" is useful not so much to bring the pastor into the group being addressed, but instead to make clear that the entire congregation is addressed. In other words, the first person plural substitutes for a second person plural.

That, at least, is my theory.

Calvin's Institutes, Battles edition: pages 93-95

As he defends the absolute necessity and sufficiency of Scripture, Calvin offers some critiques of anabaptist excesses in his own day (Book 1, chapter 9) which apply equally well to the current Pentecostal and charismatic obsession with receiving a direct revelation from God. "Furthermore, those who, having forsaken Scripture, imagine some way or other of reaching God, ought to be thought of as not so much gripped by error as carried away with frenzy." In my experience, it can be very difficult to talk reasonably about the sufficiency of Scripture with someone who believes he has received a direct revelation from God. The supposed reception of such has long seemed to me more a function of one's psychology than one's theology.

Calvin closes the question in this way: "[The Holy Spirit] is the Author of the Scriptures: he cannot vary and differ from himself. Hence he must ever remain just as he once revealed himself there. This is no affront to him, unless perchance we consider it honorable for him to decline or degenerate from himself."

Not emergent, but emerging adults

byFaith, the web magazine of the Presbyterian Church in America, has an insightful article on working with "emerging adults" which draws heavily on the work of sociologist Christian Smith. One revealing quote:

Ruling Elder Bob Baldwin at GraceDC commented that when it comes to biblical sexuality, “If the rules don’t fit their cultural expectations, they mentally find a way around them, ignoring what they know to be true scripturally. What surprises me most is how carefully they have thought through their work-arounds.”

Less less, still a word

Turns out "ruth" can be used by itself, in the sense of the opposite of "ruthless." Who knew?

Thanks, Dictionary.com's word of the day!

Grace & mercy

In Proverbs 11:16, we encounter the gracious woman, and in its thematic partner, 11:17, the man of lovingkindness. By pointing to both a man and a woman, the Proverbs indicate that the fruit of the Spirit are accessible to all people, and implicitly point to the whole of the new humanity renewed in Christ.

Island Time

is the name of the most recent episode of This American Life, which you can still download here for free, for at least a couple more days. The entire episode in on Haiti, but I found the third act most compelling with Ben Fountain's apocalyptic vision of the earthquake and its aftermath. My own experience in two earthquakes in 1992 was echoed here: when the ground and everything else start moving, one's own insanity can seem the most readily plausible explanation.

R.R. Reno gets optimistic

in this insightful review essay on Dakotas culture on the First Things website. Here's the payoff:

Thus my optimism, encouraged by my experience on the Great Plains. Most of us do not want to live in the political equivalent of a housing project administered by remote bureaucrats. Nor do we want to live in the political equivalent of the New York Stock Exchange where every dimension of civic life has a selling price. And because we don’t, if we are reasonably vigilant and energetic, odds are we won’t.

The structure of 1 Corinthians 8-10

Whilst preaching on 1 Corinthians 8, I had occasion to comment on the unusual way in which the Apostle Paul deals with the sin of idolatry in 1 Corinthians 8-10. I wrote on the implications of his argument's structure in the October 2002 issue of New Horizons in an essay titled "On Charity."